Reverb Consulting

Relocated

2009-10-04T18:05:00.003-05:00

This blog has relocated!

Find me and my ideas at jamiereverb.com

Journey of Adaptation

2009-07-07T08:41:00.003-05:00

(photo by James Neeley)

"Sharing knowledge is not about giving people something, or getting
something from them. That is only valid for information sharing. Sharing knowledge occurs when people are genuinely interested in helping one
another develop new capacities for action; it is about creating learning processes." - Peter Senge

Peter Senge is the director of the Center for Organizational Learning at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He is known as the author of the book The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization. He is a senior lecturer at the System Dynamics Group at MIT Sloan School of Management and founded the Society for Organizational Learning.

According to Senge "learning organizations are those organizations where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning to see the whole together." He argues that only those organizations that are able to adapt quickly and effectively will be able to excel in their field.

In order to be a learning organization there must be two conditions present at all times. One is the ability to design the organization to match the desired outcomes. To do this, the organization must quantify and specify the desired outcome, craft a vision. The second vital condition is the organization's ability to recognize when the strategic direction of the organization must shift from the initial desired outcome and adapt to the new desired outcome. An organization must be able to recognize this need and to adapt. Organizations that are able to do this are stable and excel.

Being this type of learning organization is a choice that requires intention, discipline, design, and leadership.

Mission Statement for Structure

2009-06-25T10:10:00.000-05:00

(photo by Pondst)

The keystone is the crowning piece at the apex of an arch, locking all of the other pieces in place. The weight of all the other structural stones is supported by the keystone. Similarly, the mission statement is the structural glue to all other elements of school culture. The mission statement becomes the deciding criteria, a pivotal lens, for all decisions with one simple question: does this idea, this project, this person support the mission? The mission statement is like the keystone in an arch, the critical element of the organization's architectural structure.

The mission statement is the solemn promise that you as an organization of people make to your customers, asking for their trust in your collective performance on that promise on a day-to-day, consistent basis throughout your environment. Collective – that means everybody, top to bottom, in the system, making good on the promise, everyday, consistently. Thus, the whole organization needs to become mission-driven: dedicated and focused on fulfilling the promise laid out by the mission statement.

A good mission statement has to be purposeful, meaningful, specific, concise, and clear. A clear message means that it is understood clearly, not that it was just sent clearly. The sender is responsible for the understanding of the message. The mission statement must focus on what you will do without fail for your customers. For a school, that means answering what are you promising to do for your students and their families? For a hospital, that means answering what do you promise to do for each patient and his loved ones? For the U.S. Federal Court Clerks, which I helped craft a vision and mission statement recently, that means answering what to you intend to do to assist and serve the public?

The mission statement is action-oriented. Your promise should have action verbs – develop, instill, create, inspire, support, serve, meet, etc. The regional U.S. Federal Court Clerks make this promise: to serve the public and support the court with a commitment to excellence.

(We promise) To ____________ whom by doing what, how?

That is the basic construction. Your promise might have multiple components. Here is how you know if you have too many: can you recite it easily from memory? Can your teachers? Can your parents? Can your students? This is a must because it is essential that we all know what we come to school to accomplish every day. A good target length is no more than 20 words.

The mission statement is not a description of who you are and what you believe. The mission statement is a promise of what you will do, if given the opportunity.

Here are some examples of promises companies we are all familiar with have made:

Google To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.

3M To solve unsolved problems innovatively.

Southwest Airlines To provide the highest quality of customer service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and company spirit.

Marriott Hotel To make people who are away from home feel they are among friends and really
wanted.

When you make a promise, you are expected to work to fulfill it. You have asked the permission of the person to whom you made the promise to trust you to deliver, to perform. The critical action set up by the mission statement, therefore, is performance. A mission-driven environment is one in which everyone is committed to making good each day on the stated promise. The whole culture, it follows, must be set up to encourage and support mission delivery. This is terrific news because the whole culture can be infused with a dynamic sense of purpose and intention.

As other stones extend from the keystone, other elements of the organizational culture are integrated with the mission statement. The core values statement articulates the values that you collectively rely on, hold dear, as a community. The vision statement speaks to your future, articulates what sort of environment you intend to create and what you intend it to look like.

I like to create two additional written statements to the organizational architecture that both derive from the mission statement: your mantra, which is a short phrase that encapsulates how you will fulfill your mission, like Nike’s Just do it. The mantra keeps everyone on track and motivated. I also like to craft a position statement that outlines what you do best that is unique from all other competitors in your industry.

As organizational structure, we are talking about written statements that all fit on one page, all built upon the mission statement, the promise to the customer. These statements give the culture architectural structure and guidance. This type of organizational design is worth every bit of time, money, energy, and intellectual resources to have everyone literally, emotional, and energetically on the same page in performance expectations.

For the money, for the effort, for the long term sustainable results: mission statement and performance. Making a promise and fulfilling it. Telling the story of why that mission for your organization. Painting the picture of what the world will look like as a result of your fulfilling your mission. Telling the stories of how you fulfill your promise in big and small ways with many different customers everyday. And, becoming known in your community for walking your talk, embodying your mission and relishing the integrity and pride that comes with that reality everyday for every member of the organization.

Mission. Promise. Performance.

By the way, a great reputation markets itself. Focus on being your best self as an organization and you will have a myriad of authentic stories to tell of the difference you make in the neighborhood, community, and world.

What is Shared Understanding?

2009-06-24T12:36:00.000-05:00

Shared Understanding is knowing the rules, objectives, and boundaries of the pursuit. It is the rules of the game. It is knowing the spirit and culture and protocol of the game. Shared understanding is a state of being that is derived, not left to accidental and wishful thinking. Shared understanding is about renewal and alignment.

Creating shared understanding is not about doing what we have always done because we are not in the environment that we have always been in. Our context has and will change again and again. Our environment is fluid, unpredictable, dynamic and unavoidable. To reach our destiny, we must traverse the environment as it is, not as we would like it to be. We must be fluid, unpredictable, dynamic, ever present, and watchful. We must always be on the lookout.

The three critical pieces that create shared understanding in an organization are the vision, the mission, and the values. These three structural components must be unique to your organization, well defined and articulated, and authentic. How do you accomplish that? Different organizations accomplish it differently, but the best way is to imagine your way forward. The best way is to use the collective wisdom of your organization to imagine its full potential, its utopia. Imagining your future requires recognizing the demands of the larger context in which your organization operates, assessing the skills, knowledge, and mindset of your organization currently and asking what needs to change now to result in our making this vision a reality.

What are the specifics of imagining? The specifics of imagining are active thinking skills and active emotional reasoning: questioning, observing, pushing, probing, wondering, synthesizing, connecting, realizing, creating. The work of imagining is asking what to do we do? Why is it necessary and important? Does the world need us to do this? How does it change the world? How does the world value what we do? How do we value what we do? Are we sure? Is this exciting? Do others care? Do we care? How can we do it differently and better than anyone else? What do we need to believe in and do in order to make our dream for the future come true?

Once the organization has done the difficult yet necessary and invaluable work of imagining their future, crafting a vision and mission, and articulating their values, everything else - all decisions, actions, words, focus, etc. - derive from these guiding statements of possibility, purpose, and particular project criteria. This development work creates shared understanding because it lays out where we want to do, what we want to do, and how we will do it with integrity, in a way that reflects out fundamental beliefs and values.

These three components become the beacon that guide the way forward.

Who's "in"?

2009-06-23T10:10:00.000-05:00

"He won't share with me." Human nature. We see it in young kids all the time. And, we see it in adults all the time. It is impossible to create a cohesive team if members of that team are not willing to share. Some people might not share because they are unskilled at sharing. That is workable. But unwillingness is not tenable and will keep the leadership team bound in various uncomfortable, ineffective, and time-wasting ways. Unwillingness is nuclear waste: toxic, dangerous, and highly destructive.

Here is how the reasoning flows: Does any member of your team display an unwillingness to be open-minded and learning new ideas, habits, ways of thinking?

If yes, is this unwillingness overt or covert? If a team member's unwillingness is overt, you are lucky. Cause and effect reasoning is pretty easy to apply to overtly counter-productive behavioral and emotional ways. If a team member's unwillingness is covert, be careful because the covert, passive aggressive actions - inspiring and manipulating the back channel conversations, feeding the grapevine, talking a happy game in the meeting and not following through - are manifestations of power. Power is little Johnny who gives his younger brother the toy to play with, but decides to give him a punch along with it while Mom is not looking. Little Johnny's and Little Susie's who do not like to share grow up and come to work.

People create a community of shared leadership by being intentional about creating a community of sharing. They intend to share the responsibility of leadership, the process of leadership, the learning of leadership, the actions of leadership, the reach of leadership. The team has to mutually commit to figuring out what our team means by "shared" - what it looks like on a day to day basis, what we understand it to mean, how it defines our thoughts and actions, how we create systems to reinforce what we want to happen in our relationships.

The process to convert a patriarchal view of leadership that is grounded in position on the organizational chart has many stages. The best place to begin is to start with the realization and intention that a team that shares the responsibility for the future of the organization will be able to accomplish and maintain more than one single individual. The first step: intention.

The second step is a question: Who's "in"?

Who's "in" is important. The people that are "in" need to be courageous. They need to risk the discomfort of being vulnerable and intimate with their team members. They need to be curious and open-minded, willing to learn as they go, sometimes in a public way. They need be willing to be wrong and to fail because learning anything new includes replacing old ideas with new, more useful ones. They must learn to reflect because only through reflecting on our own thoughts, skills, and mistakes do we learn.

Being "in" requires a lot, mostly commitment, passion for the cause, faith in the journey, and trust in your team members because they will be your fellow travelers.

Are you "in"? Know what that means, what it entails. And, know that if you are not "in", you are in the way.

What is Shared Leadership?

2009-06-22T08:04:00.000-05:00

Leadership is a combination of mindset, behaviors, skills, and a cause. Leadership, thus, is more like an attitude than it is a position. Anyone, regardless of their position in the organization can exert leadership. To me, leadership is kin to "voice" because this deep calling bolstered by skills and behaviors motivates everything you do. Every action reflects, speaks, "gives voice" to the cause and its urgency.

Leadership can be shared when many people unite their strengths, perspectives, skills, and passions toward the same cause. Shared leadership, thus, propels a mission or a vision. It is in the uniting of our unique skills and interests and strengths that we bring full force to the cause.

Shared leadership is a collective undertaking to accomplish a shared vision. Shared leadership requires teamwork but it is deeper because each individual is intentionally working to exert leadership which includes improving his or herself in effective ways so that one's participation and contribution are at their fullest potential.

What do Leaders do?

2009-06-21T12:59:00.001-05:00

First and foremost, leaders challenge the status quo. They interrupt what is going on now in order to influence the future. Leaders look to the horizon, the end game, deep into the future and ask what will get us there? They question everything.

Managers, by contrast, ask how can we keep current things going, or how can I maintain the status quo? Managers embrace the status quo, not stand up to it.

Aspiring and working toward a future vision requires a lot of things of the leader. Aspirational leadership requires detachment. Many people benefit and are complacent about the current state of being. A leader who desires to innovate and adapt to the needs of the future must detach from the emotional grousing of the people who admire the status quo. To accomplish this detachment, a leader must have confidence, courage, and commitment about doing the right thing for the sake of the future. This commitment and courage to doing the right thing are the internal resources a leader draws upon as many people work to keep things as they are.

The powerful image from the revolution at Tiannamen Square in 1989 makes the point that a leader can emerge from anywhere. This unnamed man stands on principle, courage, commitment, and hope for a better future for China. He stands strong despite risk of personal injury. He stands before the rigid, powerful status quo, the Chinese government so wonderfully epitomized by the might of the tanks. As we remember from watching the coverage, this one stand off disrupted and created many protests throughout the city.

A leader protests. He declares the status quo as unsafe, objectionable, unsustainable, unsuitable for the needs of the future. He expresses in many ways, as many as are needed, a vision for the future that is more relevant. A leader acts. She stands up and leads that first step toward realizing the future and invites others to join in. In these ways, a leader transforms.

What is Leadership?

2009-06-20T15:56:00.001-05:00

We usually know who the leaders are, or we assume we do, from their positions in the organization. We know who is the CEO or who is the Head of School or who is the leader of the marketing group. But, I think too often we assume that the person in that role is a leader, the only leader. I also think that too often we confuse leading with managing. Management is not leadership.

Management is the act of situating the details of a program or idea that is already in place. Managers focus on tasks. They work to get things done. Managers have people whom they manage -- subordinates, "people in my division." Managers are usually not leaders. Managers perpetuate the status quo.

Leaders have causes, ideas that they believe are right and necessary. Leaders focus on people not tasks and checklists. Leaders work to inspire people to be their followers and to help them accomplish the objectives of the cause. Leaders inspires with their vision and their passion. Leaders are following the force of a vision, a right choice, and they expect challenges and hurdles along the way. Leaders do not shy away from conflict, instead they see conflict as necessary to inspire more and right followers. Leaders are not people who seek stability and sameness because leaders are in touch with the ever-changing nature of their environment and the importance of their cause in making a difference in the world.

The table above from ChangingMinds.org provides a nice comparison of leaders and managers.

My half time Pep Talk for 2009

2009-05-15T20:46:00.002-05:00

created for 24 hours of Innovation event

I work with independent schools. In the first half of 2009, their worldview has been disrupted dramatically due to the shift in the economic climate. While this new environment is stressful and exhausting because each leader is having to work hard to understand the New Normal, I think this environment presents many unique opportunities if you can see them, if you can sell them to your organization, and if you have the courage to implement them. Big if's because they all involve fast and furious adaptive thinking.

1) The most important conversation to have and act upon internally and externally right now: how do we create value for our users? Sounds easy enough? Who are all of your users? What are their wants and needs? What are their unarticulated wants and needs? What are their current value expectations? Are they purely transactional? How can you exceed them? Can you make your value arguments authentically - will the user experience what you say he or she will? Can you seed value thinking throughout the organization, top to bottom?

2) The second most important conversation to have right now is how can we do more with less - across the board in every department, every employee, every job function etc etc.? This calls from expansive creative thinking and most organizations are not well-practiced in thinking or creativity. Not practiced in thinking because schools are habitually bad about running on automatic pilot and their industry model has been unchanged for decades. Not practiced in creativity because besides being status quo guarders, school leaders/people are dangerously risk and change averse. Ask why not? a minimum of 50 times a day! You will benefit from it. New efficiencies are necessary and good.

3) The world has changed and no industry is immune. This is not a disputable idea anymore! Look at GM, Chrysler, the newspaper industry, book publishing, etc. What are the destructive forces nipping at your heels that you just don't want to see? Time to face the nightmare! I would be asking this every week and trying hard to adapt to the many New Normals that are emerging proactively and strategically. I would look to young and pliable companies like Google and Linux and Wikipedia and new pricing models/partnerships like Priceline to see how they think and build new organizational intellectual capacities that are more aligned to the needs of the new economic marketplace.

The first half of 2009 is a great wake-up call for the education industry. Those that work to solve the puzzle, will benefit greatly for many years to come. Those that play the victim role are creating their own future.

Act wisely.

Slipstream - Facebook Opens a Door, an...

2009-05-03T19:05:00.001-05:00

Facebook seeking to be ubiquitous connector

Quotes:

Slipstream - Facebook Opens a Door, and Start-Ups Rush In - NYTimes.com
In a loud and proud public announcement, it said it didn’t care whether its members visited Facebook.com at all.
I go there about once a week. Otherwise all my posting and corresponding is done through other tools. comment by Jamie Baker

“We believe we are giving people a better way to share more information in more places, and we actually expect it will allow Facebook to grow significantly,” said Ethan Beard, Facebook’s director of platform marketing.

With each of these fashionable Web start-ups trying to become the essential platform for social dialogue on the Web, it has been a battle royal, and one of the most interesting and odd technology competitions since Microsoft and Netscape fell over each other to give away their browsers in the first browser wars.

“We’re competing with Facebook using their data, but we are also helping them by offering their users another way to see their friend’s data and interact with it,” Mr. Le Meur said.

Seesmic is hardly alone. TweetDeck, a budding business of the London engineer Iain Dodsworth, has more than a million users and also blends together Facebook and Twitter feeds

“Checking your stream on your phone becomes oddly addictive,” Mr. Kumar said.

Executives at Facebook say that as the premier social engine of the Web, it will ultimately find a way to make money. For example, it could choose to transmit ads along with the activity streams of its members, and perhaps split the revenue with the developers, though it says it currently has no plans to do so.

( http://message.diigo.com/message/slipstream-facebook-opens-a-door-and-start-ups-rush-in-nytimes-com-486396 )

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Posted via email from jamiereverb's posterous

Slipstream - Facebook Opens a Door, an...

2009-05-03T19:03:00.001-05:00

Facebook seeking to be ubiquitous connector

Quotes:

Slipstream - Facebook Opens a Door, and Start-Ups Rush In - NYTimes.com
In a loud and proud public announcement, it said it didn’t care whether its members visited Facebook.com at all.
I go there about once a week. Otherwise all my posting and corresponding is done through other tools. comment by Jamie Baker

“We believe we are giving people a better way to share more information in more places, and we actually expect it will allow Facebook to grow significantly,” said Ethan Beard, Facebook’s director of platform marketing.

With each of these fashionable Web start-ups trying to become the essential platform for social dialogue on the Web, it has been a battle royal, and one of the most interesting and odd technology competitions since Microsoft and Netscape fell over each other to give away their browsers in the first browser wars.

“We’re competing with Facebook using their data, but we are also helping them by offering their users another way to see their friend’s data and interact with it,” Mr. Le Meur said.

Seesmic is hardly alone. TweetDeck, a budding business of the London engineer Iain Dodsworth, has more than a million users and also blends together Facebook and Twitter feeds

“Checking your stream on your phone becomes oddly addictive,” Mr. Kumar said.

Executives at Facebook say that as the premier social engine of the Web, it will ultimately find a way to make money. For example, it could choose to transmit ads along with the activity streams of its members, and perhaps split the revenue with the developers, though it says it currently has no plans to do so.

( http://message.diigo.com/message/slipstream-facebook-opens-a-door-and-start-ups-rush-in-nytimes-com-486381 )

This message was sent to you by Jamie Baker via Diigo

Getting too many email alerts? Change your email alert setting preference here.

Posted via email from jamiereverb's posterous

The Lubin Files: Annotate the web with Diigo. A Technology Review

2009-05-03T17:36:00.001-05:00

Check out this website I found at lubinlib.typepad.com

I am liking Diigo. It has helped me learn to enjoy reading on the web. In fact, I am liking it so much that I transferred all my Delicious bookmarks, so my devotion is feeling pretty permanent at the moment. (That was rather Yogi Bera-ish!)

Posted via web from jamiereverb's posterous

The Lubin Files: Annotate the web with Diigo. A Technology Review

2009-05-03T17:35:00.001-05:00

Check out this website I found at lubinlib.typepad.com

Posted via web from jamiereverb's posterous

Collaborate for Better Results

2009-04-28T10:54:00.001-05:00

I work as a consultant. It is difficult for me to find just the right adjective to pinpoint what type of consultant, as in a management consultant, or a business consultant, or an IT consultant. I am okay with that. In fact, I think the ambiguity of it all is a great barometer for finding the type of client that I want to work with. If the person I am talking to does not have the mental patience or the listening skills for me to fill the blank, it is just as well in my book because I don’t get on well with people whose whole world has to fit rigidly and neatly in little mental categories and boxes.

Last night I was filling out the bio portion for a conference presentation. I put “innovation consultant” because that is what I am most interested in right now, and that is what I think is needed most right now as all types of businesses figure ways to align to the New Normal of our economy.

I was in New York a few months ago. At the place I stayed, The Pod Hotel, I made all of the reservations by email. No talking to anyone, no repeating all my info a few times, no waiting as the checking of dates etc happened on their end. I sent in a room request, my dates, my non-smoking preference, my ETA, and in a few hours, I was welcomed as a soon-to-be guest. As a former boutique hotel owner, I was wowed because I could imagine the freedom that this email reservation system created for the hotel and their employees not having to be slave to the phone, yet still not missing business. This was a small innovation, inexpensive, yet radical in its disruption to hotel reservations system as we know them.

Consultants get a bad rap. I am sure some of it is justified. But, some of it is hubris and short-sightedness. Some people are DIY at heart, even if their DIY effort yield a lesser result. They cannot cede control. This is a type of hubris that is hurtful to self and to system.

There are some excellent reasons to work with a consultant especially if you are considering change and innovation as a competitive necessity. Consultants are detached from the politics and emotional baggage of your system. They can see through the “if we make that change, Susan will have her feelings hurt.” Building systems in deference to people who won’t or can’t adapt is not only bad business, I think it is irresponsible and unethical, placing all the rest of the stakeholders’ needs and desires and aspirations as a lesser priority.

Consultants are not comforted by the status quo and complacency in your system. They are not deriving their sense of identity and security from maintaining the same protocol as some of the internal people are.

What consultants can do is help the pathways for communication and service delivery develop strongly and effectively and for the human element to adapt to support and enhance those pathways. Consultants cans see things that everyone else cannot see because it has been part of the backdrop for so long. These things can be negative things like the first impression an area makes on the senses (sight, smell, touch, hearing..) and positive things like the stories that are in the midst of what you do and the heroism with which you do it. Consultants can push the limits of discussion that go on in all areas of your endeavor because their questioning is free from power politics and not harnessed by social mitigation. This can have many expansive effects including more elevated and focused dialogues, new insights, less delusional escapism, less guarding of the status quo.

Consultants can also have more expertise in a specified domain like innovation or knowledge-sharing or systems which you might need but does not reside in the talent within your system.

Consultants can make great ad hoc members to your strategic thinking teams. I love working with leaders and managers to influence and enhance their thinking because through them, the whole system can be stimulated. If the leader and the manager are not open to expanding, the best consultant in the world cannot create desire where fear has taken root.

Where Do Ideas Come From?

2009-04-20T20:42:00.002-05:00

This is an interesting question to think about. Obviously ideas can come from a lot of places. But, I think there are some conducive actions and mindsets that we can cultivate in ourselves and in our habits such that we can become more likely to have ideas come.

First and foremost, it helps to be open to less control in your beliefs. If you think you have it all figured out and you have your life situated just so - efficient and safe, why do you even need a good idea because you have it all figured out. Instead I think you have to loosen your control and dependence on the status quo and be open to new ways of thinking, doing, and being. You have to be interested in the future and interested in having a voice in designing it. You have to be willing to question assumptions and to honor different paths and solutions to life's challenges. You have to be willing to ask the non-obvious question, the deep question, the difficult question because it is from those rich, searching questions that full, authentic answers comes. Asking the right question is key.

Second, you have to learn to see. You have to stop encountering the world on automatic pilot and consciously disrupt your automatic thoughts, habits, and reactions. When I am feeling stale and stagnant, about to be subsumed by status quo and mediocrity, I intentionally turn the subtleties of my day upside down. I use my non-dominant hand to brush my teeth. I stop drinking coffee and fix herbal tea as my morning drink, which I don't like doing but because it is a conscious and willful act on my part I am in touch with the purposefulness of the disruption. I drive into town via a different, inefficient route through parts of the city that I never cruise. I listen to my kids' CDs on the way instead of NPR. All of the above happens in the first hour of being awake and the effect is that I tell my brain to wake up and start scanning for information because the routine is not happening today. I proceed with intentional disruption for the rest of the day, continuing for a week or so. And, I pay attention to the different thoughts that I have, and I record them all day long, not manipulating them at this point, just recording them knowing that they can fit somewhere.

All the time while I am making the insignifica of my life conscious, I am open and sensory aware to see and experience everything in a new way. In my interactions with people, I don't react to what is said or done. Instead I play scenarios in my head that take in the bigger picture. If someone says something snarky or superficial in a meeting, I rewind their tape in my head and try to get in touch with what their whole day and whole life must be like. What do they value? What limits have they created for themselves and those around them that causes their behavior? What fears have caused them to stay in the safe land of superficiality where everything is nice, or the tightly controlled regimen of efficient detailed plans that keep life's divine spontenaity at bay? I try to figure the right questions to ask and to imagine as many answers as possible, not deciding on a right one, but exercising my creative imaginative brain muscle, developing my sense of empathy and compassion. I think with my heart in this moment, keeping my head out of the picture because it wants to defend and judge.

Another way to nurture the possibility of an idea is to hang around people and places that like and value ideas and learning. This is easy to do these days thanks to blogs, Twitter, video chat, and a regular stream of email with lots of people. What do you think? I ask lots of people this about lots of topics all day long. Here is what I think, what am I missing, what can you add to help build a bigger idea, what might I have discounted or overlooked?

Having an idea that has possibility to me is about building, one perspective and bit of wisdom upon another, thinking about each component part at a time and intentionally guarding against automatic, routine, expected, easy answers that are habitual. To me, the easy, obvious defensive answers are laziness taken root in the mind. Those aren't ideas, those are habits. Weeds.

One place to hang out with ideas is Ideablob where micropreneurs have an ideafest, telling the world about their ideas in hopes to find production partners. Another fun place to hang is Quixoting, a blog devoted to thinking out loud in public about stuff.

Why not?

We forget to take time in our busy lives to question the everyday, and it is in the questioning of the everyday that the next new thing that makes the everyday better, easier, more meaningful lives. We just need to take the time and effort to prepare ourselves for ideas to come everyday.

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Able to Judge and Adjust

2009-04-20T07:19:00.002-05:00

In his blog post today Seth Godin poses The Question that is among the most vital few questions for sustainability planning. Godin asks this:

How would you manage or market differently if you knew that you had to hit the brakes, and hard? Slowing one thing and speeding up something else.

Godin takes a look at a few of the industries where we are seeing first hand that they are not asking and answering this question. Like newspapers:

Prediction: there will be no significant newspapers printed on newsprint in the US by 2012. So, you've got two and a half years before the newspaper industry is going to be doing something else with the news and the ads, or not be there at all. Does that change what you do today if you work in this business?

Newspapers are so busy defending the status quo of their business and its model that they have lost sight of the right question? They don't like the future so they are working hard, pretending that it does not exist, or that they have effective control over it. They are not nimble. They are not wise. They are not courageous.

The American auto industry: same status quo defenders.

The American music industry: same status quo defenders.

The American education industry: same status quo defenders.

Innovation is needed desparately in all of these areas and more in order to sustain their ability to continue to deliver their goods and services to a interested customer base.

Can you anticipate the future, see what its major challenges and opportunities are?

Can you accept that the future is controlled and dictated by the desires of the customer and the protocol of the marketplace, not by the desires of your organization and its people?

Can you stop what is old school and determine and implement what is needed for 21st century relevance?

If not, so sorry. Someone else who is already doing all of these things will scoop up your customers. This will happen in plain sight while you are busy writing a press release that spouts your greatness of yesterday and your dedication to past prevalence.

Like Seth Godin suggests, it is about braking and accelerating down a different path that is relevant to the customers' future needs, wants, desires and the cultures current means of communication and connection.

Be sure that you are asking and acting toward the right question and the right vision of the future in order to be sustainable, relevant, and around.

Defending Against Creative Destruction

2009-04-08T16:25:00.002-05:00

In this article published at the Huffington Post, Christensen makes the point that managers must defend the perimeters of their business, especially the low end. The really hard part of disruption is when the disrupting competitor can come in the market at the price point of free. It is hard to compete with free. Free allows one to dominate a niche without threat of new entrants. See what Google does and Craig's List.

This article is worth the read and pondering time.

(Lovin' that Diigo helps me annotate my reading.)

Quotes:
Clayton M. Christensen: The Past and Future of General Motors
creative destruction. Manage the low end to defend against disruption. Innovate constantly and quickly.
How did GM, Chrysler, and Ford get in this mess? It is the result of a competitive attack called disruption, which began in the auto industry in the 1960s. When an entrant competitor attacks the low end of any market, the rational reaction of the incumbent firms is to abandon rather than defend it -- because the low end is the least profitable of their possible investments. Rather, the pursuit of profits causes the incumbent leaders to move up-market, towards bigger, better and more profitable products
and when they can enter the market with "free" like Craig's list, you are really in trouble. comment by jamiereverb
Lest the journalists who assembled the newspaper in which you're reading this believe they are immune from this phenomenon, their newspaper's advertising revenues are being disrupted by Google and Craigslist -- and on-line news is disrupting its readership numbers. Disruption is how Canon attacked Xerox; how Wal-Mart and Target bested the department stores; how Southwest drove so many major airlines into bankruptcy; how Sony defeated RCA, and how Apple crippled Sony.
and how charters and virtual learning will upend schooling comment by jamiereverb
Disruption is the causal mechanism behind the "creative destruction" that Schumpeter saw so pervasively at work in capitalist economies.
It's when growth stops because you're being disrupted that managing becomes really, really hard, and as a result most disrupted companies simply disappear.
Detroit with the Ghost of Christmas Future

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Recession Wisdom from Tom Peters

2009-04-06T08:02:00.002-05:00

I have been reading, watching, and following Tom Peters since the mid-80s. He has consistently delivered a perspective on business and management that is not watered down or sugar-coated and works from the articulated assumption that every person and every company should do their absolute best, attain their fullest potential, and THEN SOME! He is one of the few writers that I allow to scream at me from the page, like the tough and expectant love that spews from a drill sergeant. Why? He wants me to be better and do better.

Here is Tom Peters' recent list of how to survive the recession. We are 17 months in and its is highly likely, we have a ways to go as we re-align our economy to 21century needs and processes. I like this list because it is expansive and one can find many things to focus on and work on which keeps one's minds from focusing on worry and anxiety and catastrophizing. Pick two per week. Really think about them, mull them over and see how they shake out for your situation in your life and in your work. Then, act! That's what I am going to do - find a way to make the rough spots a source of strength and conditioning that will separate me and my organization and the value that I offer from the herd, in good times and bad.

Thanks Tom!

From Tom's Blog

I am constantly asked for "strategies/'secrets' for surviving the recession." I try to appear wise and informed—and parade original, sophisticated thoughts. But if you want to know what's going through my head, read the list below:

You work longer.
You work harder.
You may well work for less; and, if so, you adapt to the untoward circumstances with a smile—even if it kills you inside.
You volunteer to do more.
You always bring a good attitude to work.
You fake it if your good attitude flags.
You literally practice your "game face" in the mirror in the morning, and in the loo mid-morning.
You shrug off shit that flows downhill in your direction—buy a shovel or a "pre-worn" raincoat on eBay.
You get there earlier.
You leave later.
You forget about "the good old days"—nostalgia is for wimps.
You buck yourself up with the thought that "this too shall pass"—but then remind yourself that it might not pass anytime soon, so you re-dedicate yourself to making the absolute best of what you have now.
You eschew all forms of personal excess.
You simplify.
You sweat the details as you never have before.
You sweat the details as you never have before.
You sweat the details as you never have before.
You raise to the sky the standards of excellence by which you evaluate your own performance.
You thank others by the truckload if good things happen—and take the heat yourself if bad things happen.
You behave kindly, but you don't sugarcoat or hide the truth—humans are startlingly resilient.
You treat small successes as if they were Superbowl victories—and celebrate and commend accordingly.
You shrug off the losses (ignoring what's going on inside your tummy), and get back on the horse and try again.
You avoid negative people to the extent you can—pollution kills.
You eventually read the gloom-sprayers the riot act.
You learn new tricks of your trade.
You network like a demon.
You help others with their issues.
You give new meaning to the word "thoughtful."
You redouble, re-triple your efforts to "walk in your customer's shoes." (Especially if the shoes smell.)
You mind your manners—and accept others' lack of manners in the face of their strains.
You are kind to all mankind.
You leave the blame game at the office door.
You become a paragon of accountability.
And then you pray.

Sustainability

2009-03-31T12:20:00.003-05:00

G.M.'s CEO Rick Wagoner leaves after 9 years of struggle. Under his leadership since 2000, G.M. stock has gone from $70 per share to $4. Their brand is perhaps tarnished beyond repair. In the New York Times article, "The Steady Optimist Who Oversaw G.M's Decline", Michelene Maynard describes Wagoner address to company employees just six months ago at G.M.'s 100 year celebration:

"Dressed in a gray suit and a yellow, blue and white striped tie, Mr. Wagoner said: “So, what’s our assignment for today and tomorrow? Above all, it’s to demonstrate to the world that we are more than a 100-year-old company. We’re a company that’s ready to lead for 100 years to come.”

So, he had the right idea - to build upon a great tradition and great hundred years of performance and to heed the lifeblood importance of leading for sustainability, so where did he go wrong? I can't help but feel sickened by the tremendous costs of mismanagement, no matter how well-intentioned that it was.

Were they paying attention?

Where was GM when the gas crunch of the 70s happened. You remember? The one where Toyota entered the market with the marveled Corolla? Even John Updike's hero Harry Angstom bought one. Didn't GM suspect that consumer preferences might be driven by gas prices then? GM seems to be really incapable at anticipating market trends and customer preferences and delivering products that satisfy need.

Did they value innovation?

I have always heard about all the great car innovations being worked on in Detroit but the roll out schedule is something like 5 years on a product. Markets change completely in that amount of time and for the life of me, I can't understand why they have always taken so long to get to market with a sexy, innovative, in current demand product. Innovation experts all agree: get a product to market fast and innovate after launch based on user feedback. Seems to me GM has a daddy-knows-best hubris in their product selection and no sense of urgency in putting desired new products out. In fact, seems like they would tweak a design, brand it, and expect customers to not notice that it was not that different from past models.

Can't they add?

I cannot understand how GM over the years has allowed their labor costs and their unfunded future liabilities to get SO out of control. They torpedoed the company. How sad and paradoxical for all the people pushing for those untenable wages and benefit packages because with G.M. broke, the jobs and pensions disappear. I am shocked at the self-interested and short-term thinking of all of the masterminds involved over the years.

Sustainability for G.M. is a joke because of the preponderance of issues that they keep solving in the same way as before. Re-considering and re-thinking all aspects of their business with a blue sky vengance is what they need. They are bound by a fixed, insular, corporate mindset that has strangled them.

Saving them? At what costs? Seriously, imagine the continued years of costs of carrying them for a 100 years into the future, especially if they don't change their thinking.

Hey G.M.: the market wants an affordable, efficient, green car with a sexy design and a pleasant sales experience that is respectful, honest, and transparent, and they want it yesterday.

Take note of the Fiat 500, Smart car Passion for Two, and Tata Motors little number. They can do it, why can't you? seriously?

Diet Matters to the Brain

2009-03-28T12:52:00.013-05:00

'Look Dad! It's everywhere' my son said with a smile as he showed me the most recent issue of Wired and the article in it about the brain. Often he sees me reading something in the popular media about the brain and the efforts of our science community to figure out how this organ works. Sometimes those articles are about how to supercharge the brain by doing something like the following simple actions:

Brush your teeth with the opposite hand.
Learn to read upside down.
Learn to play a musical instrument.
Eat an ounce of nuts every other day.

I also frequently reference one of my most battered books: SuperFoods by Stephen Pratt and Kathy Matthews. This book has become my guide book to eating to change my biochemistry and slowing down the aging process. I try to eat healthy food including what might be good for my brain. Considering my interest in the subject, I jumped at the chance to attend the following lecture recently at The Urban Child Institute:

"Food For Thought: What to Eat for a Better Brain"
This presentation sponsored by The Urban Child Institute and the UT Neuroscience Institute consisted of two talks:

"Nutrition and the Developing Brain" by Dr. Patricia Wainwright, Professor Emeriti in the Dept. of Health Studies and Gerontology at the University of Waterloo in Canada

"Eat Smart: Your Brain Reflects What You Eat" by Fernando Gomez-Pinilla, Professor in the Dept. of Neurosurgery and Physiological Science at UCLA

The lesson from these two speakers: Diet matters.

Wainwright stressed that diet really matters during gestation and the first few years of life when the majority of brain development occurs. Seemingly insignificant dietary omissions during pregnancy and early childhood may cause brain malnourishment that may having lasting effects that do not surface for years.

Gomez-Pinilla talked more about the importance of certain micro nutrients and exercise. He believes certain foods lead to a healthier brain. He mentioned several of the superfoods including salmon. He said that he didn't think organic foods were worth the price. He preferred eating the right foods rather than taking supplements.

Hearing these two scientists talk makes me realize that while much is being learned about the science of the brain, even more is unknown. The brain is a vast frontier. It also occurred to me that if I had to rely on what I had learned in school about nutrition, I would be eating a lot of the wrong foods. With regards to diet and nutrition, as with many things where our world's understanding is significantly changing, continuing to learn is paramount. Life-long learning is important.

Weekend Update

2009-03-23T13:07:00.003-05:00

What I did this weekend:

The weekend effectively started on Thursday morning with extraction of eight wisdom teeth. Check off another milestone in the journey of parenting twin daughters. It was a great opportunity to reflect on that journey while the two usually high energy kids lay like sleeping lions after a bull's eye hit from a dart gun fired by Marlon Perkin's trusty sidekick Jim Fowler. The house was indeed unusually quiet. My two almost 18 year olds don't seem to have much wisdom. I wondered how wisdom teeth got that name? Wikipedia explains that it is believed to be because they appear at a wiser age than the other teeth. No real surprise there but interestingly, Wikipedia also references an article about the successful harvesting of stem cells from wisdom teeth last year in Japan. I don't think wisdom comes at the same age those teeth appear. Rather it is accumulated along life's path. There is a lot of thought lately about life's path in our house. The two dental patients should know where they will attend college in the next few weeks.

So while the patients recovered, Jamie and I went to hear words of wisdom from someone that is a bit further down life's path: Jane Goodall. It is not often that I get a chance to hear a lecture by someone that I remember reading about in a 3rd grade textbook almost 40 years ago. As is becoming the norm for me, I heard the familiar encouragements about following your passion and questioning the norms, success achieved from outside the establishment, challenges to the traditional roles of women, sustainability. When you start looking for them certain themes are everywhere. As humans, we notice such a small percentage of what is there to see.

Goodall spoke as part of the Vanderhaar Symposium at Christian Brothers University. Congrats to Anthony Siracusa on the Student Peace Award he received prior to Goodall's lecture. This award was given to Anthony for his work at Revolutions Community Bike Shop. Along with that work Anthony has generously shared his passion for biking by mentoring my son as a bicycle mechanic. Anthony departs soon on a year long trek to study biking cultures around the world as a Watson Fellow. Anthony has become a leader of the Memphis biking tribe. Anthony's blog about his trek.

Speaking of tribes, I wrapped up the weekend by learning about another huge tribe. I took my mom (and dad) to see Hats. Hats is the musical about the Red Hat Society. A few years ago my mom told me about a group that she had joined: The Red Hat Society. The RHS is a fun loving social organization for women over fifty. I had never heard of it and didn't give it much thought at the time. Recently I received a direct mailer about the performance and thought my mom would enjoy it. When we arrived for the show most of the audience were elderly women wearing red hats. A Google search reveals that this tribe is 1,500,000 strong. Each member pays a $20 annual membership fee. I marveled at the marketing genius of the musical. This is certainly geared at a specific niche. Come to find out the society commissioned the musical. RHS has numerous other money generating products and ventures but the Google search did not reveal much about the Red Hatters from the traditional business media. I am reminded that I need to always pay attention. You never know where the next inspiration is coming from.

That Google search did reveal that researchers at Penn State University are conducting interviews with Red Hatters as part of a study that is researching the link between play and happiness. 'Play' is one of the 'six fundamentally human attributes that are essential for professional success and personal fulfillment' outlined in Dan Pink's A Whole New Mind. Pay attention.

Something to Ponder

2009-03-20T13:00:00.000-05:00

I am not sure where I read this last week - (that is one of the problems if you read a lot, not being about to pinpoint everything) - but I have been thinking about it a lot. So, I share this as something to ponder in a big way as it relates to big things, and in a big way, as it relates to the little things in daily life.

Here is the thing: "These days the medium is the message."

What do the many mediums that I utilize personally and professionally and even intimately express about who I am, how hip I am, how knowledgeable I am, how intentional I am, how caring and sensitive I am, how interested in a relationship I am, how dedicated to quality I am, how disciplined I am....I could go on and on. These are the questions I have been asking and answering across my own life spectrum. It has been a rich and enlightening thinking experience.

I suggest you take this found and profound statement, and do the same. See what happens.

High School Newspapers Going Social

2009-03-19T02:33:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow's newspaper editors, in whatever form newspapers survive, are in high school or college today. That is interesting to think about. So, the short of it will be this: the goal and passion to do good quality journalism will stay the same, but all aspects of the delivery format and the whole sense of timeliness will, or really has, changed.

This article in the St. Louis Dispatch, available for me on STL.com, talks about the shift that is starting to happen in high school journalism:

"There's no doubt that's the trend for youth journalism, to both post and consume online," Mitsu Klos said. "This is obviously the next and necessary step for them, to make the information available where (students') social networks are."

Know the audience and meet them where they are? Uhh........what is new about that? I mean, really?

Guy Kawasaki on School Innovation

2009-03-18T06:00:00.002-05:00

In his keynote address at the National Association of Independent Schools Annual Conference in Chicago, Guy Kawasaki offered one of his famous 10 Things lists. Explaining that schools should prepare young people for living, not just for entrance into college, below is what Kawasaki wishes schools would teach kids so that business people won't have to once these young people enter the world of work and the reality of life. This list might serve as a Reality Check for schools!

Teach students how to figure out anything by themselves.
How to explain anything in 30 seconds.
How to do a one-page report.
10-20-30 rule of PowerPoint (see above).
Optimal length of an e-mail is five sentences, without an attachment.
How to survive a meeting (basically you get what you want out of the meeting and then you park your brain).
How to run a meeting (start on time, end on time, involve as few people as possible).
How to work as a group (the solo brilliant person doesn’t work in business).
How to negotiate win-wins.
Learning is a process not an event. It’s a lifelong process that is not limited to school.

What would be in the harm in preparing kids for their futures instead of perpetuating the traditional notion of school? Is it just our discomfort with changing, doing something different from what we have always done? Be honest!

Guy Kawasaki on Innovation

2009-03-18T05:45:00.001-05:00

Guy Kawasaki, plain-spoken serial entrepreneur and legendary venture capitalist recently gave one of the keynote addresses at the National Association of Independent Schools Annual Conference in Chicago. Drawing from his books The Art of Innovation and its newer iteration Reality Check, Kawasaki outlined 10 things to realize and incorporate into one's habits, mindsets, and behaviors to be innovative. To fully appreciate Kawasaki and his work, one has to understand the tacit assumption from which he operates (it may be tacit but it is loud and strong: INNOVATE OR DIE!)

Strive to do the following:

Make meaning. "The people who wake up in the morning wanting to make meaning usually succeed. The people who want to make money usually fail. Those who perpetuate good things, cause good things, or end bad things – those are the innovators." Kawasaki illustrates this with the Nike ad aimed at women. The ad sells the idea that when you exercise, you empower yourself. Nike turned two pieces of cotton and rubber (shoes) into efficacy, liberation, and power. Nike is making meaning out of shoes. They are selling self-empowerment, not shoes.
Make a mantra. "Most organizations make mission statements and most mission statements suck!" By contrast, a mantra is no more than two or three words." Kawasaki's offers examples of mantras he would adopt based on places he frequents. Wendy’s should be “healthy fast food;” Nike stands for “authentic athletic performance;” eBay represents “democratization of commerce;” and Target could be “democratize design.” Kawasaki suggests that a bad mission statement creates a bad company vision.
Jump to the next curve. "Don’t be satisfied battling it out on the same curve as all of your competitors." Kawasaki suggests doing what they can't do. Macintosh created a whole new curve, not a slightly better DOS computer. The telephone was not a slightly better telegraph, it was a whole new curve. Most organizations define their business on the curve they’re on. If you truly want to be innovative, it’s not about doing things 10 percent better – jump the curve to do something 10 times different and better!
Roll the DICEE. All innovations share the following elements.
Depth: Create great products and services that are revolutionary
Intelligent: Someone has anticipated what’s necessary
Complete: Not just the leather and steel and glass of the car – it’s the totality of the experience, it’s the Lexus experience.
Elegance: The beauty of the industrial design.
Emotive: Generate strong emotions – people love what you do or hate what you do, but they are certainly not indifferent. The worst case is that people don’t care about what you do.
Don’t worry, be crappy (which Kawasaki readily admits is a blatant rip off of the Bobby McFerrin song). If you wait for perfection, you’ll never be ready to act. Act first, improve later. Too many organizations and people have analysis paralysis which costs us time, money, creativity, and market share, all of which lead to a death trap.
Polarize people (emotiveness). Many organizations try to be all things to all people, which inevitably produces mediocrity. Don’t try to anger people, but do not hesitate to alienate a group that you can do without.
Let 100 flowers blossom ("stolen from Chairman Mao"). For example, Apple's original goal wasn't to spark a new desktop publishing industry, but it did encourage many software companies to write programs for the Mac. Apple Computer would have died if the Aldus Corporation hadn't developed PageMaker for the Mac in 1985 – thus expanding the Mac beyond a simple word processor or spreadsheet tool.
Churn, baby, churn (yes, another song rip off – thank you to the Trammps!). To be an innovator, you need to be in denial. Ignore the bozos who keep telling you it cannot be done. Then listen to customers to see how to fix your product. Fix it, ship it, listen. Then, start again: fix it, ship it, listen. It is a never-ending process.
Niche thyself. You want high uniqueness and high value. If you’re a great value but not unique, then you always have to compete on price (i.e., Dell Computer). If you’re only unique without value, you’re just a clown – you own a market that doesn’t exist. If your product/service is neither unique nor valuable, quit! You want to produce something that is unique and of great value to the customer, like the Smart car, which can park perpendicular to the curb, among other things. Determine what is unique about youand make sure your uniqueness is of value.
Follow the 10-20-30 rule. Create a maximum of 10 slides in a PowerPoint presentation; deliver it in 20 minutes; the optimal size font is 30 points.
Don’t let the bozos grind you down. Rich and famous parses to “lucky” not necessarily smart. "If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at who he gives it to." So watch for Bozosity. Take a shot of Bozosity to inoculate yourself against it.

So, now you have the list. What to do with it? How to use it? My suggestion is to sit down in a quiet environment. Close the door, or better, go to a new place where you can be free of all distractions and have a serious one-on-one conversation with yourself. Ask: what is keeping me from believing or embracing this suggestion? Where am I on a scale of believing this and how can I influence a stronger understanding of this concept? In other words, take a serious inventory of where you are and what you need to do to move forword. Why? Remember: Innovate or die. That applies to us as organizations and us as individuals in organizations.

Bracketology

2009-03-15T20:24:00.004-05:00

March Madness! We wait for it every year at our house. Even though we don't really pay attention to basketball, until about the first of March, my three children, my husband, and I look forward to picking names out of the hat to see who has what teams and how they will fare, playing through the brackets.

The NCAA Division 1 Men's Tournament is the best kind of bracketology - 65 select, highly capable teams competing via an exciting process of elimination. Winner takes all.

You might ask what kind of other bracketology is there? Bracketology is actually a synonym for reductionist thinking, and it was featured in a 2007 book, The Enlightened Bracketologist: The Final Four of Everything. I thought this was an exciting concept and went to the bookstore intending to buy this book. Upon looking at it, even thought it was well done and fun, I did not purchase the book because narrowing anything down to a single best, only one winner is antithetical to what I believe in and how my mind works.

Reductionist thinking is logical, scientific reasoning. It is binary, built on either/or, better or worse. It is the process of winnowing. Too often we consider reductionism as the only true logic and the only sound way to make decisions.

Reductionism lacks imagination and intuition. Reductionism does not make room for ambiguity and paradox, both of which are more apt and reliable in explaining and understanding complexity. Therefore, reductionism, as I see it, provides not only a false sense of security, power, and progress, it develops a false picture of a situation because it over-simplifies.

I favor a more radiant, imaginative thinking process that embraces both/and, sometimes, in this case, and for right now as descriptors. Radiant thinking seeks to make connections and associations, to spread out ideas and assumptions in order to expose gaps and create space for invention and innovation between structures.

When does bracketology work? Only after a long season of practice and play, as each team that makes the tournament knows. Their season record and conference play earns them a Bracket invitation. In working with ideas and concepts, use bracketology only after a long season of play and practice in expanding and experimenting. Don't narrow or rush the important imaginative work of problem-seeing and solution creation.

Manage your Word of Mouth

2009-03-13T14:00:00.005-05:00

Jackie Huba of The Church of the Customer blog posts an interesting question regarding the economic value of word of mouth referrals from existing customers. She asks, "Do you know the referral value of your best customers? That is, do you know how much revenue is generated from customers who refer you, and how much revenue is lost from those who recommend against you?" Huba offers research Satmetrix has conducted in the wireless communication industry. It is great to be able to get specific.

Here, however, is my specific enough answer to her question:

Your best customers' referral value is priceless! Learn to harnass it!

Paying attention and managing your word of mouth is worth a lot to your business, regardless of what sort of business you are in. Knowing your influencers, evangelists, and promoters is vital to spreading good will and making the case of your value-added. These people are in effect your volunteer sales force. They can promote and validate from the user's perspective. In addition, they can create positive conversations to diffuse or neutralize any negative word of mouth that is swirling.

Once you know who your influential customers are, engage them, educate them, include them, marshall them, appreciate them, validate them, reward them, support them, etc. etc. etc. - get the picture? If you have to ask why, start at the top and read this post again.

Schools Are Boring Because We Designed Them To Be Boring

2009-03-10T09:25:00.008-05:00

Denizen Hotels will become a cultural epicentre at each of its destinations, cultivating community within its walls. Eclectic, social and humbly authentic, each property within the brand will be smart in design, cultural in character and sensitive in service delivery. Developed as an international intersection of business and pleasure, Denizen Hotels will redefine how guests stay and play. With innovative check-in technologies and in-room comfort controlled at the touch of a button, Denizen Hotels destinations will harness the best and brightest design and technology to provide a seamless guest experience for the modern traveler.

The above description is from an email I received from Hilton Hotels announcing their newest brand, Denizen. A denizen is an inhabitant, or someone who has been granted residence in a foreign country, or, more casually, someone who frequents a place, like a bar would have its local denizens.

What struck me in reading this hotel description was how schools should strive to accomplish the same end goals in their environments. Below is my re-write for a school. I am naming my school Right On! because that is what a school should feel like to the kids and parents that experience it.

Right On! School will become a cultural epicentre in each of its classrooms at every grade level, cultivating community within its walls and outdoor learning spaces. Eclectic, social, and humbly authentic, Right On! School will be smart in design of its learning practices and learning spaces, cultural in its learning focus, and sensitive in its service delivery to both students and parents. Developed as an international intersection of work and play, Right On! School will redefine how students learn, play, and build relationships that span the globe. Right On! School will define how parents and teachers learn, support, and guide children. With innovative technologies and in-room physical and emotional comfort controlled as determined by the needs of each individual learner, Right On School classrooms will harness the best and brightest design and technology to provide a relevant preparatory experience for the modern learner and his or her parents.

In the top right corner, the circled exclamation point, would be their logo because, even though children have to be in a contained place that we call school, it should and can and is most effective when it is exciting!

Upholding Catholic Values After Conversion to Charter Schools - NYTimes.com

2009-03-09T11:29:00.001-05:00

via nytimes.com

Charter Schools could find themselves in greater numbers and offering more value because of the values they can offer and can teach and live out. Great to see!

Posted via web from jamiereverb's posterous

What The Head of School Wants You To Know (But Probably Forgot to Tell You!)

2009-03-07T00:00:00.001-06:00

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

What The Head of School Wants You To Know (But Probably Forgot to Tell You!)

View more presentations from Jamie Baker. (tags: change education)

Aid Critical to Fulfill New Jersey’s Public Preschool Plan - NYTimes.com

2009-03-03T13:05:00.001-06:00

via nytimes.com

If we were to have a universal, high quality, enriched experience for every child to develop learning readiness and effective social skills, just think of the potential and capacity we are developing for all of our schools, all of our communities, and all of our futures. Just imagine!

Posted via web from jamiereverb's posterous

Review Site Draws Grumbles From Merchants and Users - NYTimes.com

2009-03-03T13:01:00.001-06:00

via nytimes.com

So, what won't we Yelp given a little more time and more saturated mobile tools? We as consumers yelp about our experiences all the time, but our current megaphone extends to our play lot, our email list, our coffee group. Add high speed global connectivity, no filters except your personal idea of civility, and unarticulated criteria and you have a management nightmare for any business trying to deliver a high quality experience, service, or product. Tomorrow's question, that will be here in just a few minutes is how can we develop some positive Yelp? Or, just pretend Yelp doesn't exist, and that will develop its own category of Yelp.

Posted via web from jamiereverb's posterous

Beale deals with latest drinking problems — blitzed birds : Local News : Memphis Commercial Appeal

2009-03-03T12:40:00.001-06:00

via commercialappeal.com

Be ware of drunk flying birds! I see them everywhere near where we live downtown!

Posted via web from jamiereverb's posterous

In Denver, Residents Lament the Closing of a Newspaper - NYTimes.com

2009-03-02T11:40:00.001-06:00

via nytimes.com

Is this the first domino? How fast will they fall? Why couldn't they see it coming?

Posted via web from jamiereverb's posterous

Passion and Story

2009-02-23T06:00:00.001-06:00

What did you do this weekend?

Thursday:
Hats off to Brooks Museum and Indie Memphis for collaborating to bring Momma's Man to Memphis. This indie film was touted as well-received at Sundance in 2008.

Friday:
Attended a lecture by Nobel Laureate Jody Williams ('97 Peace) at the University of Memphis.

Saturday:
Viewed the sell out screening by On Location Memphis of the 2009 Oscar-nominated Shorts and Animated Shorts.

These three events highlight for me two points:

1. Everyone likes a good story. Good stories were plentiful during these events.

2. Success can often be achieved from the outside by tapping into one's passion.

Momma's Man was made outside the realm of major Hollywood studio establishment. This unsettling film is about a man's return to his childhood home and his internal struggle to escape beyond the orbit of childhood and family that he finds himself drawn back to. While that is a thought provoking aspect of this film, the story that I found most fascinating was the actual story of the film's genesis. I like to watch films to see the locale which often becomes a character in itself. The locale for Momma's Man is a 40 year rent-controlled Tribeca loft that was very cluttered. That loft was the seed for this movie. The filmmaker wanted to film there to document this loft because it was his childhood home. Once into the project, he couldn't imagine anyone else living there other than his parents, so he got them to play the parents in the movie. Although fictional, Momma's Man is very autobiographical.

The audience at the Jody Williams lecture seemed as much interested in her story as in the facts or policy details of peace. She was a temp-worker making $13,000/year in 1985. Passion for antiwar movements that she developed in her youth led her down a path to the Nobel Peace Prize. Along the way, she found that she needed a change and was totally unclear about what that might in 1992. Five years later, she received the Nobel award for her efforts which resulted in an international treaty to ban land mines. She did this by working outside the normal governmental and diplomatic channels. While Ms. Williams is well educated, unlike other Nobel laureates that I have heard, the most dominant impression she made was not of her mind but of her heart.

Only one of the ten films nominated for an Oscar in the shorts categories was from the US. That alone illustrates that these films come from outside the Hollywood establishment. This cornucopia of short films by simply being short lack commercial potential. These filmmakers were advertised as the 'up and comers'. They are putting in the required time to master the skills of a trade for which they have passion. Could the ease of availability of the technology required to make a film be cracking the barriers to entry?

So my lessons of the weekend:

Put in lots of hours working on your chosen passion and learn to use the magic of story.

Name this restaurant!

2009-02-21T18:12:00.001-06:00

This should be easy if you are a Hoya from way back, like me!

Jamie Feild Baker
Reverb Consulting

Posted via email from jamiereverb's posterous

I'll take the house and the car!

2009-02-21T18:06:00.001-06:00

Jamie Feild Baker
Reverb Consulting

Posted via email from jamiereverb's posterous

Benjamin Zander on music and passion | Video on TED.com

2009-02-21T17:55:00.001-06:00

via ted.com

Here is his marvelous TED talk. Enjoy!!

Posted via web from jamiereverb's posterous

Benjamin Zander | Profile on TED.com

2009-02-21T17:54:00.001-06:00

via ted.com

People's passion, regardless of the area they are passionate about, is contagious. Benjamin Zander makes me what to really listen and learn about music. He makes me feel capable.

Posted via web from jamiereverb's posterous

Innovation Block

2009-02-19T09:50:00.005-06:00

Writer's block is a terrible thing and it can really zap your overall confidence. The worse case that I ever had (knock wood) lasted over three years and took some serious effort to overcome. This post by Henrik Edberg of the Positivity Blog offers some great suggestions to keep writer's block from invading your psyche: How to Never Get Writer's Block.

I have been subscribing to The Positivity Blog for over a year and highly recommend it for useful advice and tips on how to keep you and your thoughts from from defeating your dreams and derailing your projects.

Here is Henrik's list of things to do to keep from shutting down mentally:

1. Always carry a pen and paper
2. Write everything down
3. Brainstorm
4. To get a good idea, have a lot of ideas
5. Expose your mind to new ideas
6. Expose your mind to stillness
7. Keep your mind open
8. Just start writing whether you feel like it or not

It occurs to me in deeply considering Henrik's list that these are the suggestions that I would give to an organization that is trying to innovate and renew. Similar to what happens with writer's block, organizations can get caught up in the doing of it all to the point of fatigue and numbness. This numbness becomes so solid that creativity and excitement are rooted out. There becomes such a focus on completing tasks that the connection to why we are doing becomes lost, or if many years have past, is not known in the first place to people who have entered the system since the project or event or initiative was started. This driving automaticity can take over just like the realities of managing one's life can dry the well of thought and creativity that leads to writing.

To overcome an innovation block, an organization must become as diligent and intentional as a blocked writer in creating circumstances that lead to creativity and energy directed toward inspiration and action. That means intentionally making routine time to bring in new sources of information, new perspectives, and new ideas. Dedicating a set portion of every meeting to question assumptions, to take the view from 30,000 feet, and to reconnect to purpose can help the picture of the whole come into focus for many and it creates space for improving and enhancing parts of a project or process. It is in improving or enhancing the parts that innovation can take root and value can be added.

Most importantly and most frustrating to the driving do-ers of any organization is Henrik's suggestion that to have a good idea, you have to have a lot of ideas. To have lots of ideas takes time and effort and many will lose interest, or fail to garner interest, and revert to let's do what we know because it is quick and easy, tried and true. And, so it may be. If, however, innovation and continued relevance is your goal, "quick, easy, tried and true" are true innovation blocks.

Bloggers: Customized Columnists

2009-02-17T11:10:00.005-06:00

I am a routine reader of many different blogs and look forward to them like I do some of my favorite newspaper columnists. Actually, these days I am liking the blogs better than my traditional newspaper columnists because the blogs I follow come to me. I get to pick the ones I want to read, so they are in effect customized columnists. And, they are free. They wait for me in my email inbox. They stack up there sometimes, but I don't have to walk over them or carry them to the recycling center. The blog posts that I like can be easily and quickly labeled and filed and shared with friends. Until newspapers can make the switch to sending out their content instead of relying on me to go to them, blogs may continue to gain the advantage.

I have been reading the blog Lyved for about 6 months. I am most impressed with the usefulness and timeliness of what editor Andrew Galasetti posts. And, I am most impressed with the amount of wisdom Andrew has developed despite his young-ish age. As what he writes about exemplifies, I think Andrew is proof of the power of positive and intentional thinking and living.

Take today's post for example: 15 benefits and lessons we now have from the economic crisis
Here is Andrew's list:

Lessons Learned
1. Generosity is alive and well
2. No single person is at fault
3. Patience is a form of action
4. The downturn is natural
5. Many people need to learn about basic finance
6. We're still in better shape than most
7. Can't rely on degrees and "recession-proof" jobs
8. Money doesn't bring that much happiness

Benefits Gained
9. Keeping us from buying crap
10. Allowing us to connect with older relatives
11. Kids are learning their own lessons
12. New opportunities
13. Those that are corrupt and greedy are being taken down
14. Our greates qualities come out and grow
15. Better times are coming

I have had some of these thoughts and noticed some of these patterns from my vantage point. It is a powerful and good thing to curb the unfettered spending and consumption of teenage girls, and this recession has certainly done that to my teenaged daughters. They are starting to learn about the economics of a recession and are paying attention. But, Andrew has really thought about it, observed patterns and behaviors, and served up his post with simplicity and honesty. He does this all the time and I highly recommend subscribing in order to start having his columns delivered to your inbox.

What did you do this weekend?

2009-02-15T17:44:00.007-06:00

Yesterday a friend asked me what we did this weekend. Aside from some deep cleaning on Saturday and a little reading, below is a list of the highlights of our weekend activities.

Thursday night: In Search of a Midnight Kiss at the Brooks Museum

Friday night: George Wolfe's The Colored Museum at the Hatiloo Theatre

Saturday night: Abundance: Art in Motion by Ballet Memphis at Orpheum Theatre

Sunday afternoon: The Tribute to Pavarotti at the Brooks Museum

So what is the point? Why is what we did important or significant?

Tribes
Each of the four events we attended represent time spent with what Seth Godin calls "tribes". A tribe is a group of people that share a passion. With today's technology, it is easier than ever to find your tribe no matter how obscure or geographic disbursed. The four tribes I witnessed this weekend had passion for the following indie films, live theater, ballet, and opera. Seth Godin does a great job explaining the concept of tribes and the value of new technology in finding, leading, and growing a tribe. What I witnessed this weekend makes me think Seth is on to something huge and important.
Free download of the audio version of Seth Godin's Tribes

Reallocation of assets, especially in economic uncertainty
When I initially considered the cost of attending four events in four nights, I thought it might be a bit much. After the whole weekend, I realized that I spent less attending these four events than a dinner for two had cost the prior weekend. (In a way, I spread my Valentine's celebration over 4 nights instead of one!) This weekend I did not eat in a restaurant but I did live an abundant life. Maybe a little attention to resource allocation is a way to make up some of the lost ground of this recession. Consider what value services and products offer. Add value to what you offer so that when your customer considers the question of value, you will fare better. Be able to articulate your value unequivocably. I think that more people are going to be searching for value in these times of economic turbulence.

Increased localization and democratization of production can be game changers
The indie film reminds me how deep in our society the tools needed to produce a film have spread. The film I saw on Thursday night had some rough editing and I never heard of any of the actors, but it was an award-winning film that told a great story. And, it was hilarious and makes me laugh just thinking about it even now. (That's of value!)

The live play that we attended was created with all local talent in a very small, quirky venue. I thought it offered tremendous value when compared to the large touring Broadway productions that come to the larger, more socially accepted theater.

I perceived the ballet as the most old school of the events from my weekend with regards to structure. The ballet company is a labor-intensive operation and performed this weekend in the most traditional venue in town, which I am sure is very expensive to rent. Frequently Ballet Memphis dances in smaller nontraditional venues. It is a local company and, as was the case this weekend, Ballet Memphis often dances to locally conceived and choreographed pieces. It also frequently dances to music that is not traditional ballet fare. I see the use of local flavor and non-traditional elements as an purposeful attempt to remain relevant to the marketplace and open dance more interesting to wider audiences.

The opera film takes the opposing side of local. While Memphis does have a local opera company, I don't think its several performances a year satiate the local opera tribe. The Brooks used technology to offer to the opera tribe a world class performance from half way around the world. I heard talk among the audience of driving over 100 miles to Little Rock, Arkansas to attend opera broadcasts. I remembered reading that The Metropolitan Opera simulcasts in HD its performances to theaters outside of New York.

So, what did you do this weekend? And, what did you think about it? Did you hang with a few tribes like I did, or were you feed creatively as many times over? If not, get with it! Friday will be here again real soon!!!

Better Problem Solving

2009-02-07T05:55:00.000-06:00

Problem-solving aptitude is the ability to identify and define problems as well as to generate and implement potentially effective solutions. Problem-solving includes multiple phases. It is a process and takes time. Those of us who cannot hold the tension or manage uncertainty over time have trouble with deep problem-solving because they rush to conclusion. Here is how that sounds just give me the answer or tell me what to do. The end result suffers. Peers who value a deep and expansive process suffer. The discovery of what is quite possibly revolutionary for your organization instead of immediate and easy and habitual suffers.

Problem-solving aptitude includes:

(1) the ability to sense a problem and feeling confident and motivated to deal with it effectively.

(2) the ability to define and formulate the problem as clearly as possible by gathering relevant information. This includes the ability to see connections that are not obvious.

(3) the ability to look for the source of the problem by uncovering habits and assumptions that might have created the problem.

(4) the ability to generate as many solutions as possible through brainstorming and other radiant thinking methods. (If you don't know the methods, this ability is compromised. The least effective, even harmful, method at this stage is deductive reasoning.)

(5) the ability to make a decision to implement one of the solutions. This stage includes weighing the pros and cons of each possible solution and choosing the best course of action. Questions still play an important part here: what if I do this? What if I don't do this?

Problem-solving is associated with being conscientious, disciplined, methodical, and systematic in persevering and approaching problems. This skill is also linked to a desire to do one's best and to confront problems, rather than avoiding them.

People who are inherently conflict averse, binary thinkers, micro-focused, reliant on deductive reasoning, impatient and unable to hold the tension of opposites are not good problem-solvers. In organizations, these people benefit greatly from recognizing this about themselves and finding a good thought partner to enhance their problem-solving effectiveness.

TV for Adult Learning

2009-02-05T05:46:00.000-06:00

With the economy in a weakened state, every organization I know is in wait-and-see mode, about everything - new product development, expansion, travel, learning. I propose that wait-and-see mode, while understandable, can be very dangerous. I think there is a better, more creative mode that we need to engage: more-with-less mode.

Doing "more with less" was Bucky Fuller's credo. One of the great American visionaries of the twentieth century, R. Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983) endeavored to see what he, a single individual (the power of one), might do to benefit the largest segment of humanity while consuming the minimum of the earth's resources (early sustainability thinker). He described himself as a "comprehensive anticipatory design scientist," setting forth to solve the escalating challenges that faced humanity before they became insurmountable (solve a little problem before it becomes a big one). Fuller's innovative theories and designs addressed fields ranging from architecture, the visual arts, and literature to mathematics, engineering, and sustainability. He refused to treat these diverse spheres as specialized areas of investigation because it inhibited his ability to think intuitively, independently, and, in his words, "comprehensively." Fuller vehemently believed that all things interrelate.

One of the areas that is easily in danger as we wait and see what the economy will do is learning within our organizations. The world is moving and changing so fast, and new information is being shared so immediately that to get behind in our thinking and understanding is extremely perilous. I believe it is self-sabotage on an individual basis, and organizational sabotage when viewed from the collective vantage point.

How can we continue to learn and improve without expending financial resources?
How can we leverage the knowledge of the individual so that it influences the knowledge of the whole?
How can we make learning easy, fast, fun, part of our culture?

These are all active, better questions that are not paralyzing like wait and see is.

There are many possible answers and directions stemming from these questions. Let me offer one valuable, important, fun, easy, free, exciting, and stimulating resource: FORA.TV.

"The World is Thinking." This is the idea that FORA.TV is founded on. Incredible human capacity is on display at conferences and meetings and forums all over the world and we can't possibly avail ourselves of it in person. So, FORA.TV brings the power of thinking and quality thought to us.

Take a bite here and then go to FORA to find what interests you and what enhances the knowledge base of your organization. And, an added benefit: no commercials.

Malcolm Gladwell Questions the Prodigy Status of the Beatles:

A Twitter Trigger

2009-02-03T19:07:00.007-06:00

I brew ideas. I find something I like and hold it in my head, waiting to attach it to something else I like. I trust a lot in being open to the knowledge that is in the world and believe that the right things are trying hard to find me. I believe in and love synchronicity. Here are the lines along which I am thinking or brewing today.

A few days ago in a conference call, I was asked to name some things that innovative organizations do that distinguishes them from less innovative organizations. I suggested that you can tell a lot about a organization and its commitment to sustainability planning or creating the specifics of its future by analyzing its meeting culture and the fullness of their group discussions. If I had remembered, I would have added that a more innovative group uses the Google 20% time rule by devoting at least 20% of every meeting to the big picture, the Big Why? of what it is that we do. Toyota calls this always remembering and centering on the objective behind the objective.

I spent most of today reading about two things and trying to find the details of the their intersection. The two things were surviving in a recession and how a good organizational culture gives your company a competitive edge. I finished the final chapter in Ram Charan's Leadership in the Era of Economic Uncertainty. I am always reading Peter Drucker and Charles Handy, one and two pages at the time.

I am trying to get better at using Twitter. This is one of the best things someone tweeted last night (Thanks @redstarvip!)

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." - Dr. Seuss

This quote really connected all these ideas for me. One of the biggest challenges for a group that analyzes issues and makes decisions is to get the right group together and to think and decide well together.

Getting the right group together goes way beyond the requisite functional roles or operational departments present at the meeting. Innovative groups value their members for the thinking style and ability as well as the uniqueness of the perspective and experience they bring to the table. As President Obama has expressed in his cabinet selections and in numerous interviews regarding his strategy, the approach that Abraham Lincoln used, a team of rivals, will expand the opinions and options brought before the group to consider. So, first and foremost, the who in meetings is terribly important.

Secondly, expectations and behavior in meetings is important. The most common phenomenon in most meetings is that the real meeting takes place down the hall or in private offices after the public meeting, the one that absorbed a large chunk of everyone's time, is ended. Malcolm Gladwell alludes to this occurence in his book, Outliers, when he writes about social mitigation. I have written about it before, describing it as being grounded in Politeness theory in Evolving Beyond Niceness. "Niceness" prevents important issues and perspectives from getting proper attention. "Niceness" prevent total and expansive honesty from being applied to decision making. "Niceness" also disrupts the ability of the group to develop the kind of trust where contrary opinions are validated and valued, thus the Dr. Seuss quote -- in an incohesive group, there are always those that mind.

As long as the economy is tight, every organization in every industry will be having to address how they create value because all spending will be scrutinized more thoroughly. For groups making decisions, making full and interconnected decisions that address the important, not just the urgent, as Ram Charan says, is critical to their organization's future viability. Paying close attention to your organization's meeting culture will help you learn to make decisions that offer more value.

Tod Machover: Music for Everyone

2009-01-31T12:06:00.005-06:00

Tod Machover believes in the power of music, yet laments its elusive and somewhat elitist nature. Elusive because we can't harness its power. Elitist because the years of study and practice that it takes for one to learn to make beautiful music winnow the number of people who master it to be an elite few.

Machover joined the faculty at the new Media Laboratory of MIT in 1985 as Professor of Music and Media and Director of the Experimental Media Facility. He is head of the Lab's Hyperinstruments/Opera of the Future group and has been Co-Director of the Things That Think (TTT) and Toys of Tomorrow (TOT) consortia since 1995. Notably, Machover was the professor working with Eran Egozy and Alex Rigopulos, who developed Guitar Hero while graduate students at MIT.

Simple, imaginative, sincerely expansive questions have led Tod Machover to change the possibilities of music for everyone.

What if young children could experience the joy of making music?
What if making music weren't so hard?
What if music were fun before it was drudgery?
Why can't instruments be smart?
What happens when music and composition and instruments intersect technology?
What happens when music unlocks expression?

For Machover's truly amazing answers and creative inventions that address these questions, watch him with Dan Ellsey at TED. This is amazing, enlightening, and a testament to questioning, problem-solving, and creativity.

Create A Better Story

2009-01-29T05:30:00.001-06:00

There is a great article about Walmart is this past week's Sunday New York Times: "Green Light Specials, Now at Walmart". Walmart has been working on repositioning itself for a number of years, wanting to be more things to more people. They have also decided to aggressively go green. It takes a little adjusting to go to Walmart, the consumer's paradise, and see smart packaging, organic foods, and sensitivity to the environment. But, it is all there.

The NYT article describes the turning-point meeting for Walmart, the meeting they call The Choice. The Choice was for Walmart to bolster its market position, its consumer respect, and its profitability by going green. As CEO H. Lee Scott puts it, "It wasn't a matter of telling our story better. We had to create a better story."

I talk a lot about the importance of telling your story with the groups I work with. Two imperative components are that your story has to be authentic, and it has to be a good story. Bad stories don't attract the trust and goodwill of customers. Neither do contrived or untrue ones.

As the Walmart CEO explains, "There was a time when people in business believed all they had to do was to run their business. But, it doesn't work that way anymore. There is an accountability that goes way beyond that." What Mr. Scott realized was that Walmart's story had lost favor with its customers who wanted to do busy with a company whose values matched their own. Walmart had to understand that, in Mr. Scott's words, "As businesses, we have a responsibility to society. Let me be clear about this point. There is no conflict between delivering value to shareholders, and helping solve bigger societal problems." Wow! That is a story. For one of the largest retailers in the world to wake up and recognize what is relevant and important to its customers and retool its organization to move toward those new societal values is impressive, and it's paying off for Walmart.

If Walmart can do it, if Walmart missed the signs and clues along the way and had to have a Choice meeting, I think it calls for each of us running our businesses to ask the same questions:

What do my customers want?
What have a missed or failed to see that is right there in front of me?
What are the values of my customers that I can partner in?

Another point that Mr. Scott makes is that Walmart could not see itself all that clearly. For the first time in its history, Walmart hired outside consultants to help them see themselves as their customer did. So, another important line of questions:

How do others see us - my customers, my peers?
Is there a gap between what others see and what we see?
What can an outsider see that we can't?

Using those two big inputs of information in addition to what you know about your business can help you create a better, more sustainable future.

Embrace The Use Of New Media Tools

2009-01-21T17:34:00.006-06:00

On Tuesday, January 20th, 2009 at 12:01 pm if you liked then you could read a blog post that begin as follows:

'Welcome to the new WhiteHouse.gov. I'm Macon Phillips, the Director of New Media for the White House and one of the people who will be contributing to the blog.'

When the clock struck Noon, the entire site WhiteHouse.gov changed, a bold reminder that Barack Obama is the first President of the internet social networking age. Obama is President today because of his ability to harness the power of these 'new media' tools that we all have at our disposal. Over the weekend, I saw Nixon/Frost. There is a scene in that movie in which Nixon recounts to Frost how JFK beat him in 1960 with a better command of the new media of that time: television. Similarly, Obama first beat Hilary Clinton and then John McCain with his better command of the new media of this time: the internet. It will be interesting to see how these tools that worked so well for campaigning will be used to help govern.

While so much attention is given to the historic significance of Obama being the first African American President, the greater significance may be that of the passing of the reigns of power to a younger generation. That being a generation that is increasingly more comfortable with this new media. While born in a year that qualifies him as the third baby boomer president, Obama is fifteen years younger than both George W Bush and Bill Clinton. While that fifteen years may represent a huge gap, it is widened even more by the youthful digital natives like Macon Phillips, that Obama relies on to operate the tools of the new media.

Keven Kelley wrote that the symbol for the 21st Century is the internet. He continued, "The net has no center, no orbits, no certainty. It is an indefinite web of causes. The net is the archetype displayed to represent all circuits, all intelligence, all interdependence, all things economic, social, or ecological, all communications, all democracy, all families, all large systems, almost all that we find interesting and important. Whereas the atom (20th Century symbol) represents clean simplicity, the net channels messy complexity."

Obama's ability to navigate this 'messy complexity' is what makes him a transformative figure in American politics. Obama won a long, expensive and brutal campaign. His edge was the ability of his team to use these tools of the new media to his benefit. As with prior campaigns, this recent election offers itself as a case study of sorts with many lessons to be learned and applied. It is a case study that most of us have already put in the time to become familiar with the details. A little more time of reflection and discussion may lead to valuable lessons for the campaigns of our organizations. Questions abound about how we individually and organizationally transform with regard to this new media. Now is the best time available to ask how you can better take advantage of these new media tools.

Dangerous Unselfishness

2009-01-19T07:17:00.000-06:00

On April 3, 1968, the day before he was killed, Dr. Martin Luther King gave the now infamous speech, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” at Mason Temple in Memphis. In the beginning of this speech, Dr. King poses a powerful rhetorical question: “If I were standing at the beginning of time, with the possibility of a kind of general and panoramic view of the whole of human history up until now, and the Almighty said to me, ‘Martin Luther King, which age would you like to live in?’” what would I decide?

Dr. King, slowly and melodically, takes the audience on a mental flight through time in answering this question. He goes by ancient Egypt as the slaves cross the Red Sea to the promised land; by ancient Greece where he could hang out with Socrates and Plato; by the Renaissance with its burst of aesthetic and cultural creativity; by the time of his name sake Martin Luther and the stir he was causing during the Reformation; by the time of Abraham Lincoln who struggled in concluding to sign the Emancipation Proclamation; by the time of economic strife in the 1930s.

Dr. King concludes that he would like to live now, in the 1960s, as he was, and that he would like to be in Memphis at that moment in time, despite knowing that his life was in danger as he spoke about at the end of this magnificent speech. “I would turn to the Almighty, and say, ‘If you allow me to live just a few years in the second half of the 20th century, I will be happy.’” Dr. King cites “another reason that I’m happy to live in this period is that we have been forced to a point where we are going to have to grapple with the problems that men have been trying to grapple with through history… Survival means that we grapple with them.”

Deep in the “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech, Dr. King tells the story of the Good Samaritan. Dr. Kings says, “Now you know, we use our imagination a great deal to try to determine why the priest and the Levite didn’t stop,” meaning that we tend to give them a break due to their busy lives, full of position and responsibility, excusing their “compassion by proxy.” Dr. King speaks about visiting the Jericho road outside of Jerusalem with Mrs. King. He says he could easily see why Jesus chose the road from Jericho as the setting for the parable because the Jericho road is winding and curvy, perfect for ambushing thieves. It is a dangerous road. Dr. King concludes that the Levite and the Priest were more concerned about their own safety, asking “what will happen to me if I stop to help this man?” But the Good Samaritan asked out of empathy, reversing this question, “What will happen to this man if I don’t stop to help him?” Dr. King calls this empathy in action “dangerous unselfishness” and compels his audience to stand up for and by their brethren in “dangerous unselfishness” like that of the Good Samaritan.

In what ways can each one of us bring more dangerous unselfishness to our lives? This is not only the question of the day, I think it represents a shift in our consciousness as a country. I think young people are deciding in droves that building their lives around the accumulation of money, position, and power lacks soulfulness. I think we are seeing a rise in people's desire to develop a sense of purpose and a call to action to rebuild the collective health and welfare of our society that is significant. It is going to be extremely interesting to watch as President Obama strives to create and lead this new consciousness. I wish him all the best and will be vigilant and responsive to ways I can do my part.

Listening for Hope

2009-01-17T15:21:00.005-06:00

It is a great irony and thing of import that Barack Obama will be sworn in as the 44th President of the United States the day after the Dr. Martin Luther King holiday. Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis in April of 1968. I was six years old and remember the Army National Guard tanks rolling down my street on the way to their posts in downtown Memphis. Of course, I was too young to know what was going on. I just remember my parents watching the TV a lot and their being extremely on edge. Forty years seem like a lot time in between the events of that I Am A Man strike and Dr. King's death and finally electing a man of color to serve as our President.

I am fascinated by the rhetorical prowess of both Dr. King and President-elect Obama. I have been reading many of Dr. King's speeches in the last few days as sort of a introspective homage to the purpose to which he dedicated his life. His ability to unite, inspire, and lead people toward a more hopeful, righteous future is amazing. And, I could make the exact same statement about President-elect Obama.

In one of his speeches entitled "The Three Dimensions of a Complete Life," Dr. King uses inspiration from a vision that John the Baptist had while in prison about the importance of the length, breadth, and height of God's Temple. Dr. King interpreted the length of one's life as "the inward concern for one's own welfare." He said it is that inward concern that motivates us to push forward and achieve our goals. It is one's inner-strength and courage. Dr. King says the breadth of one's life is "the outward concern for the welfare of others." It is one's sense of purpose and selflessness. It is using our gifts for the betterment of life for others. The height of life is "the upward reach for God." I would call this one's sense of gratitude and sense of The Sacred. To me this is having a sense of one's life as a gift and a sense of responsibility in making use of that sacred gift, to be called to service.

In looking at these three dimensions, I see President-elect Obama as being aware of his three dimensions and of his calling each of us to use our courage and talents to put our life in service of Goodness and Love. I think next week will be an exceptionally powerful and critical moment in the history of our country. I can't wait to witness the glory of the moment and hope that the tides of emotion wash over us collectively as a country such that hope becomes prevalent in all of our lives and our actions.

Check out past Inaugural speeches as well as MLK speeches at American Rhetoric.

photograph by Memphis Photographer Ernest C. Withers

2009-01-08T09:53:00.003-06:00

If you don't know about Seth Godin, you need to. He writes fun-to-read books that are poignant and practical for anyone trying to work and be happy, or in other works, anyone or any company trying to market themselves or a product and enjoy doing it. The first of his books that I read was Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable. The premise being that you (an individual or a company) will not be noticed or remarked about, if you are like every other cow in the pasture. A Purple Cow - something new, different, and refreshingly authentic - now that is remarkable!

Here is a complete list of books by Seth Godin.

And, you should subscribe to his blog because he posts almost everyday short provocative ideas that help the reader get really honest about what you are doing and how. Here is his most recent post about goals.

The thing about goals

Having goals is a pain in the neck.

If you don't have a goal (a corporate goal, a market share goal, a personal career goal, an athletic goal...) then you can just do your best. You can take what comes. You can reprioritize on a regular basis. If you don't have a goal, you never have to worry about missing it. If you don't have a goal you don't need nearly as many excuses, either.

Not having a goal lets you make a ruckus, or have more fun, or spend time doing what matters right now, which is, after all, the moment in which you are living.

The thing about goals is that living without them is a lot more fun, in the short run.

It seems to me, though, that the people who get things done, who lead, who grow and who make an impact... those people have goals.

The thing about setting goals is that it starts with honest assessment and reflection. You have to critically look and honestly state where you are. This does not include defending how you got there or why you are there. Just state where you are.

Next, you have to decide where you want to go. What placement, position, and quality of service for your organization makes sense for your customers two years from now, five years from now? This step is often short changed because the people crafting the vision get mentally, intellectually, and emotionally bogged down by thinking and spreading the idea that it sure will be hard work to get there from here. It is easy to hear: that's a lot of work! Mr. Been-Here-A-Long is not going to go for this! Can't we just make a few spruce-up type fixes and call it a day? - (as if they customers are so dumb that they wouldn't notice!) When this sort of sabotage happens in the visioning process, you might as well just quit because the process is so severely tainted that it is not worth finishing because it is not true to the mission of the organization. It has been adulterated by the I might fail and it sounds like I will have to change and work harder disease.

If you get get through the honest assessment and the imagining the future parts, then your goals become clear: What do I have to do to get from point A to point B? What resources - financial, intellectual, human, mindset, etc - will I need to get there? Who shall lead this initiative and in what ways are they going to be measured and held accountable? The process has lots of components, but its an elephant you can eat, one bite at a time.

Vatican Goes Techno

2009-01-05T07:09:00.004-06:00

In a recent post, Jeff De Cagna of the Principled Innovation blog, writes about the Vatican joining the social media revolution. He asks, simply and provocatively, "If the Vatican can do it...."

It seems that the Vatican's got its on gadget and web designer in Reverend Paolo Padrini who has written an application for the iPhone that downloads the liturgy, in seven languages. The application is called iBreviary. The daily prayers, daily mass, and other special prayers are available at a touch to catholic priests and believers around the world.

The liturgical application, iBreviary, costs $1.10 and is available in the iTunes store with free updates. The proceeds from the sale will go to charity.

MSNBC reports that the Catholic Church is using social media technologies as a means of bringing its message to the world. Monsignor Paul Tighe, secretary of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Social Communications, says the Church "is learning to use the new technologies primarily as a tool or as a means of evangelizing."

Even Pope Benedict XVI is in on it. During last summer's World Youth Day in Sydney, Australia, he sent out mobile phone text messages citing scripture to thousands of registered pilgrims — signed with the tagline "BXVI."

The Catholic Church is arguably one of the largest global organizations around. And, they have a stout reputation for being extremely conservative. Yet, they have a committee, the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, creating and selling their message via downloads. Priests, even the Highest Priest, are texting and using iPods.

When is the next meeting of your organization"s committee on social media and when will its app be available? I guess we should pray for those with their heads still in the sand.

Transformational Experiences

2009-01-02T12:47:00.000-06:00

In a recent post I mentioned that Think Fun was transforming the way children think. If you are interested in creating transformative experiences then you might be interested in Charles Halton's Never the Same: How to Create Transformational Experiences. Download a .pdf file via changethis.com

Here is a quick summary of the 18 characteristics that are essential for creating transformational experiences:

1. Inspire Passion or Go Home
2. Create Controversy
3. Be Different
4. Be a Social Butterfly
5. Repetition is the Mother of All Learning
6. Humans are the Same
7. Humans are Different
8. Embrace Paradoxes
9. Repetition is the Mother of All Learning
10. Pass Along Methodologies
11. Don’t Be a Slave to Fashion
12. Be Inefficient
13. Produce a lot
14. Humiliate Yourself
15. Cultivate an Atmosphere of Trust and Safety
16. Stop Thinking You Know Everything
17. Be a Master of Surprise
18. Make it Clear

7 things Meme

2009-01-01T20:32:00.006-06:00

I’ve been tagged by Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach of 21st Century Learning to contribute to this meme. Many thanks to fellow Twitterer @ckyle who let me know I had been tagged. The idea is that you share 7 things about yourself that would be unknown to your readers.

I grew up the middle child of 5 kids. I think it made me a natural calm and shrewd negotiator.
I attended the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, intending to become a diplomat. My parents overruled my plans and I was too immature to realize I had the power to do it anyway.
I finished all of my course work for a Masters in Creative Writing but had a three year bout with writer's block that torpedoed my thesis efforts.
I wish to return to Washington, DC to live.
I have twin girls who are now almost 18. People who say "I always wanted twins" are obviously naive.
I have a 15 year old son whose severe dyslexia is the reason I am passionate about highly functioning and relevant schools.
I believe the work I am doing is my calling

Now I am suppose to tag 7 people who will do the same thing I just did.

I tag:

Jürgen Fauth

Carson Baker

Tim Tyrell-Smith

Seth Godin

Dan Pink

Andrew Galasetti

Scott McLeod

Think Fun

2009-01-01T10:51:00.000-06:00

Over the holidays, we did a little straightening up around the house and uncovered what might have been the toy of the season. Curiously, it was a set of games and puzzles that had been a Christmas gift years ago. All the puzzles were from a company called Binary Arts. A search on the net revealed that Binary Arts is now known as Think Fun. That is exactly what these games are about. Think Fun claims a mission to ignite brains. 'Think Fun games teach children to become better problem solvers, transforming the way they think.' Check out the Think Fun website or the Think Fun Education website

Develop A Habit: A Learning Mindset

2008-12-27T17:40:00.007-06:00

According to Howard Gardner, this is an obsolete idea:

Life can be divided into distinct periods such as an education period which is then followed by a work period.

Many, however, still mindlessly embrace this idea. If you embrace this obsolete idea then you risk the fate of what Alvin Toffler warned when he said that 'the illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.'

Help in avoiding this fate is as close as the internet. The use of tools available via the internet can help develop the habit of lifelong learning. For the inquisitive mind, the internet is like an 'all you can eat' buffet. If anyone is interested in a resolution for the New Year, consider pledging to develop the habit of lifelong learning. While the options seem endless, here are a few spots to get you started.

Malcolm Gladwell has a great website: www.gladwell.com. This site offers an archive of Gladwell's New Yorker articles and information about his books. You are sure to learn something.

Watch or listen to a TED Talk: www.ted.com TED is about spreading ideas and each talk only takes about 20 minutes.

Download and read a .pdf file. The Medici Effect by Frans Johanssen will help you learn to be creative. The entire book is available for a free download at www.themedicieffect.com The website www.changethis.com offers a huge selections of manifestos by some great minds.

Use the websites of traditional media such as www.nytimes.com or pbs.org

Use the websites of the new media such as wikipedia.org or youtube.com

Want to learn to play the guitar? There seems to be an unlimited selection of videos on youtube.com with guitar players showing the chord sequences of songs.

Want to learn to cook? Check out Mark Bittman's wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Bittman There are several links at the bottom of the page to Bittman's presence on the web.

What to learn a foreign language? http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/

Bill Gates and Warren Buffet are touting the value of learning to play bridge. They are funding programs that teach bridge to school age children. If you think that bridge would be good for the plasticity of your brain, download a free program at www.acbl.org that will help you learn to play bridge.

Museums can be great for sparking creativity and learning. Many museums now have a presence on the web. If you want to examine the notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci, go the British Museum's site that lets you turn page by page through those notebooks: http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/ttp/ttpbooks.html

Watch video on the internet. I learn by watching an unbelievable lineup of guests on The Charlie Rose Show. Episodes are offered at www.charlierose.com

Listen to a lecture from one of this nation's great universities. MIT offers what they call 'open courseware': http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm

Many are available through itunes: http://www.apple.com/education/mobile-learning/ including Stanford: http://itunes.stanford.edu/ and Yale: http://itunes.yale.edu/

Some universities have related centers and ventures that maintain a separate web presence. For example, Stanford's Entrepreneurship Corner: http://ecorner.stanford.edu/ or The Harvard Business Review: http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/hbr/hbr_ideacast.jhtml

Many of these sites offer the option of subscribing to a podcast: If you want to learn something about economics, you might like www.econtalk.org

Truly, the options abound. It is up to each individual to decide what they are interested in learning about and then to find the teacher. The idea is to develop a mindset of learning. Always be learning. Committing to be a life long learner is simply a matter of habit.

Born To Learn

2008-12-19T04:52:00.001-06:00

Hamlet: Prince of Denmark
Act IV, Scene IV
A plain in Denmark

What is a man
If his chief good and market of his time
Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more.
Sure, he that made us with large discourse,
Looking before and after, gave us not
That capacity and god-like reason
To fust in us unused.

Humans are designed to learn.

We are born to learn. Babies learn vast amounts of skills and behaviors, without the aid of school or direct instruction. They learn through their senses, through observation, and largely through practice, trial and error. I know way too many adults, fully capable, that have stopped learning. They are too busy, too tired, not interested, too afraid, too lazy. This is sad and I think creates great sadness as these individuals find themselves more and more out of sync with the realities and demands of our world.

We need to learn and learn and learn. Being a lifelong learner has never been so necessary, so exciting, and so easy. Every day one can travel to the great museums of the world, into concert halls or rock stadiums, to classes at great institutions of higher learning, into the minds and lives of teenagers posting to blogs, Twitter, or You Tube. I just don't understand the adult who has decided they are as good as they get or as necessary right now.

Design Rules Applied

2008-12-18T10:53:00.003-06:00

I enjoy reading Garr Reynolds' blog and love his book, Presentation Zen. He recently posted this list of 10 design rules to keep in mind for graphic presentations.

10 design rules to keep in mind
(1) Communicate — don't decorate.
(2) Speak with a visual voice.
(3) Use two typeface families maximum. OK, maybe three.
(4) Pick colors on purpose.
(5) If you can do it with less, then do it.
(6) Negative space is magical — create it, don't just fill it up!
(7) Treat the type as image, as though it's just as important.
(8) Be universal; remember that it's not about you.
(9) Be decisive. Do it on purpose — or don't do it at all.
(10) Symmetry is the ultimate evil.

Because my mind loves to make bigger and more connections, I immediately saw that this list aptly applies to great writing as well, for oral presentation as well as to be read. Here is my interpretation of these rules for writing.

In creating an impactful and effective message, it is important to be direct and precise without being flowery and cute. If the speaker or writer expects the audience to spend time staying focused and open to the message, then communicating directly without decoration respects the audience.

Images and analogies provide a way to tap into the audience's well of experiential wisdom. Visual language helps the listener or reader place themselves in the message. Taking the audience to an idea through their experience or a place is a beautiful and powerful thing. Yet, be aware that this skill is not well-developed in all listeners. Some people derive great comfort and control from concreteness and exactness. I would recommend using nuance and imagery and data. Imagery moves the listener. Data sells.

Typeface is a mode of graphic representation. The analogous element in speaking or writing would be the tone. Pieces are better if they have the same overall tone throughout with maybe some change in tone for effect or mental break along the way. An old writing teacher called these digressions "windy roads," solidifying the point that they twist and turn, but they lead somewhere; they are purposeful.

Colors have great subconscious significance. Using color intentionally is merely a subset of the charge to use every element intentionally and respectfully, always conscious of and focusing on the audience needs and perceptions first and foremost.

Less is more is a simple yet powerful goal in all things. In writing there is a paradox. You must write clean but you must communicate fully so that the message is not left up to the interpretation of the audience. In order to effectively seed the message, you must control the message and its interpretation. Just enough words is the goal. The same former writing teacher advised, "When you think you have taken out all that you can, take out 10% more." I think it's hard, and tedious. Having a day or so between drafts helps one see what can go.

Negative space in an oral presentation is the pause. Allowing time for words to penetrate is essential. Creating space for the audience to listen then fully receive and think about the message in the moment is vitally important. The writer can create this space through the structure of the message, controlling the arc and pace, and by signaling recovery time through paragragh breaks and topic changes.

Being universal; remember it is not all about you. This is the best advice on the list. Think about it don't you tire quickly, and almost immediately, of people who drone on and on about themselves? The message should focus always on the audience needs, interests, concerns, values first. Having empathy and deep understanding of the audience is how to ensure you are creating a message that is appealing and authentic enough to be heard and considered.

Being intentional shows the care and consideration and diligence and passion one has toward any project. Being intentional takes great time and reflection and huge effort. The benefit is that being intentional leads to a more authentic, more personal, and more intimate message.

Symmetry in a message to me connotes balance or indecisiveness. As the listener or reader, I continue paying attention to a writer or speaker that honors my time and earns my trust. What I am looking for is his or her argument. I want to see and follow their reasoning and their passion. My sustained attention signals that I am willing and seek to be convinced. Whether the speaker or writer will prevail in convincing me is different, but I want them to use their time and mine in a diligent direct effort. I don't want to be presented with a balanced argument because in the end, the message is empty because I am right where I started, in a position of either-or, and I have wasted my time and effort. There needs to be a call to action which is not symmetrical.

(Treat the type as image - had to leave this one out. Any analogous ideas? Send them to me!)

Open Source Thinking

2008-12-15T09:02:00.002-06:00

This post by David Gurteen of the Knowledge Cafe was too good to alter. It explains the big cultural shift in knowledge -- it is not power anymore. Sharing knowledge and using your knowledge to participate in something bigger than it and bigger than yourself is what the new climate is.

Open Source Thinking

To me this is at the heart of what web 2.0, enterprise 2.0 and km 2.0 are all about! Its a different mindset that many people still do not get or like to see. Open source thinking is sharing and remixing. You've got to set your ideas free, you can't control your content. It is a different mindset: "Ah darn, someone else has got there first" versus "Great, don't have to do that, I can build it on it!" For me, it's been the ability to think out loud with colleagues on ideas and topics, share presentations, etc.

Credit: Momentum by Alison Fine

Is Your Organization Smart?

2008-12-09T16:13:00.007-06:00

The analogy waiting and wanting to be made is to ask is your organization smart? Just as asking the right question is paramount, understanding all of the embedded criteria in a direct question is paramount as well.

Using the Smart car as our focal point, one must specifically deconstruct "smart" in order to understand the question, or in effect, the many questions encoded in the word "smart":

intelligence -- does your organization use intelligence to derive solutions?
whimsy and personality -- does your organization's actions and responses delight and reveal your personality?
custom and made to order -- does your organization aim to provide person-specific solutions that conform to your values and mission as opposed to a one-size-fits-all type service?
just-in-time -- does your organization lumber along on rhythms that fit the organizational structure or are you sensitive and responsive to customer needs as they occur, or even proactively?
collaborative -- does your organization strive to co-create with your customers and collaborate internally across division boundaries and power hierarchies?
effective and efficient in a just enough way -- is your organization meeting the needs of the customer as described by your mission in a balanced and effective way?
open-minded and forward thinking -- is your organization constantly looking to make improvements in order to meet customer needs and actualize your mission? Are you striving to learn new ways and new things as an organization, all the time?
conversation starter -- is your organizational energy such that people want to be connected to you and know about what you are doing? Do they want to be in relationship to your work?

Is your organization smart? It seems like a simple and easy question. But, really, it is very hard to be disciplined and committed to developing a responsive, innovative, energized organization that is striving to be the best at what it does, and is working diligently to delight its customers.

So, you can't quite say yes, without a doubt, yours is a smart organization. The value is in knowing that options and criteria exist in order to work toward culture change and mission definition and alignment so that soon you can, in the future, regale yourselves at your journey to Smartville.

Smart, Open Your Mind, Forward Thinking, Passion

2008-12-08T08:45:00.003-06:00

As I drove north on I-55, the sounds of George Thorogood's version of an old Chuck Berry tune played in the radio of my mind. Just one verse repeated over and over in my head: 'I met a German girl in England who was going to school in France. Said we danced the Mississippi at an Alpha Kappa dance. It wasn't me. No No No it wasn't me'. Enough of that, I fiddled with the car radio of the new car that I was driving. I had never turned on this radio before and wasn't quite sure how to work it. I picked up the local NPR station to hear talk of the financial woes of the Big Three car manufacturers. The green interstate sign that loomed overhead read 'Next Exit Nissan Dr'. Wow! What a combination of events I was experiencing. I thought of Thomas Friedman and concurred that the world is truly flat. My reality that day was that Jamie and I had just driven to Mississippi, near a Nissan factory, from our home in Memphis to purchase a German car with a Japanese engine that had been conceptualized in Switzerland and made in France. To add more globality, Thomas from the dealership where we had just bought the car took us to lunch for sushi at a Japanese restaurant. That is sort of what George Thorogood sang about but with cars instead of girls.

We had just bought, and I was driving, a Smart car. A 2009 Smart Fortwo Passion coupe, to be specific. Jamie ordered this car on the internet with a $99 deposit about 18 months earlier -- not a typical car purchase. This Smart was made to her specifications. Thomas at the Jackson, Mississippi Smart dealer called Jamie about a month ago to tell her it was on the way from Europe. Since Memphis does not have a dealership, we were assigned to the Jackson dealer.

Thinking about our new Smart car and the ills of the pantheon of American car makers, these ideas occur to me:

* Americans truly have a love affair with the automobile. People's reactions to this new Smart car and our own excitement with it makes this clear.
* The Big Three are begging for financial help from Washington. I guess that is because they are not selling enough cars. Yet we waited for this specific car, choosing not to purchase any other car, for 18 months.. While we were at the dealership in Jackson, people walked in to ask about the Smarts, only to be told all the cars on the lot were sold. I asked myself why I was not driving a new American car? I distinctly and viscerally remembered the last time I drove a new American car. It is when I rented a Pontiac last Spring. It was poorly designed, uncomfortable, and awkward, to put it as nicely as I can.
* Why did Jamie want this Smart car? It is whimsical, easy to park, 44 mpg, is just enough room and space, has good design, and is unique. And, it is just plain fun. When she ordered it, she had never even seen one in person. Yet, she picked out every detail to her liking from the website and bought it without a test drive or a kick of the tires. That is customer-focused.
* The Canton Mississippi Nissan Plant reminded me that the Big Three are not the only car companies manufacturing in the US. I assume that Americans work in that plant. I also suppose that if it came to it, that factory could be retooled for wartime use.
* The Smart brand tagline is 'open your mind'. It is displayed on their printed materials, strategically placed in large placards throughout the dealership, and on their promotional clothing. I read in the smart literature at the dealership that the arrow in the logo was for forward thinking. The model was called a Passion. To recap: 'smart' 'open your mind' 'forward thinking' 'passion'. I like all of that, a lot.
* Some say that the Smart car is not masculine enough for a man. While the new Smart is Jamie's car, let me tell you, it is not as emasculating as a mini-van. It might not be masculine but it sure draws the attention of women because it is cute, and radically different. It makes a statement on its own, bolstered by its brand monikers: smart, open your mind, forward thinking, passion.
* This Smart car is a conversation starter. Questions abound. The somewhat random facts below answer some of those questions. Everyone likes a story and this car has a story.
* The Smart project was originally started by Swatch. The Smart idea came from outside the auto industry from someone that knew nothing about the auto industry. Swatch understood that it was not enough to offer a watch that was mechanically functional. Function is a given, the base level of entry. It takes good design to set a product apart. Swatch had been successful with this concept in watches and wanted to give it a go with cars. Like a Swatch watch, the Smart is good looking, whimsical, and just plain fun. Like the Swatch it is daring and innovative.
* Swatch offered their idea to GM as a joint venture. GM turned it down. Swatch eventually collaborated with Daimler as the manufacturing partner. Daimler and Swatch have since divorced. I guess all is not storybook in Smartville. Daimler is now the sole owner.
* Although Daimler is a German company, The car is made just over the French border in Hambach, Lorraine, France. This area is traditionally industrial and has been depressed economically.
* It only takes about 4 hours to make a Smart car from start to finish in the factory in Hambach. Smarts can be manufactured in four hours because it just requires assembling component parts which enter the Hambach factory from smaller factories that are adjacent to the Smart factory. These supply factories are not owned by Daimler. Krupp and Siemens, among others operate these adjacent plants and supply the components for the Smart as they are needed. Collaboration and sharing of information between these suppliers and Smart is a requirement for success.
* Because the Smart cars are made to order, the actual Smart factory has no extra parts. Components are supplied just in time and in the order needed from the adjacent factories.
* The Smart has a 3 cylinder, 1 liter engine made by Mitsubishi that provides 70hp.
* If you tire of the color of your Smart, then you may change out the injection molded plastic panels that are made by Dynamit-Nobel using technology developed by General Electric.

For almost a week now, we have been fielding questions about the Smart from the smiling people whose paths cross ours. It is the car that makes them smile. Maybe people just like a good jolt of whimsy, especially in unexpected places. We already have a collection of stories. My son was pulled over by the bike-mounted police who questioned whether the Smart was even street legal. Jamie got a note on her windshield from a local reporter asking for an interview about the car. Like most of the folks that I see when in the Smart, I am all smiles and thumbs up about this car! I like the smiles this Smart puts on our faces as we roll around town. And, I like the smiles coming toward me from others. It is just plain fun!

Our Smart experiences over the last week, make me realize that many of the themes that Reverb helps address can exhibit themselves in the most unexpected places. It sometimes seems to be everywhere if one just pays attention. I work at being observant of things that are hiding in plain sight. To realize these themes in my everyday life is rewarding. It is exciting and encouraging to see Smart incorporate these themes with success. Remember: smart, open your mind, forward thinking, passion in all things!

Creating Value

2008-12-03T07:02:00.002-06:00

As we continue to shift through the new realities - the economic recession, new technology, etc - it becomes apparent to me that creating value in who we are, in what we do, and in what we choose to invest ourselves and our time is key. To me, creating value is inextricably tied to creating or connecting to a deep sense of meaning. Reconnecting to a sense of meaning, a sense of purpose, and a sense of efficacy will give us that sense of stability, familiarity, and comfort that is disrupted by the increasing pace of life and economic uncertainties.

To create a sense of value in who we are, each one of us should objectively analyze our relevance to the current reality. Take stock of our skills, our attitudes, our mindsets. Are they in sync with the needs of the job I am asked to do? Are my technology skills strong enough to compete with the younger people in my environment who seem to have been born texting and googling? If not, how can I quantify the value I have and the value I place for myself on my contributions? Maybe we have work to do in this area to make ourselves more valuable and to make our contributions more relevant and sought after.

To create a sense of meaning in what we do, each of us should intuitively examine if we love it, if we find meaning in how we invest our time and effort. I often talk with people who have lost their sense of meaning in their work. I think being able to focus on the mission and big picture of the work of the organization can make the relevance of the compartmentalized work that each of us does more meaningful and more connected to a purpose that we can value and draw inspiration from. Learning to see the big picture and to value effort toward making a vision become a reality is highly motivational and inspirational.

If one can't love or connect to what we are investing our time in, then finding a way to understand our effort as a path to a different pursuit makes the current part of the journey necessary. What do I need to learn from this experience to carry with me, to put in my toolbox, for what I am working towards doing at a later time? Understanding or having a sense of trajectory of one's own life makes each experience and each encounter of potential value and meaning.

I call what I have described living more intentionally, with more strategic awareness. Many, including Ellen Langer and Jon Kabot-Zinn in their writings, refer to this as mindfulness. Developing mindfulness has taken a lot of time and effort but has increased the joy I receive from working hard and learning new things, and even dealing with difficult people and difficult situations.

Schools Out of Sync

2008-11-12T19:15:00.004-06:00

Here is the presentation that I gave in conjunction with All Kinds of Minds at the Tennessee Association of Independent Schools Biennial Conference in Nashville. There were 14 different schools represented in my workshop, and it is amazing how everyone is grappling with the same issue: how to be relevant to the 21st century.

Schools Out of Sync: Teaching and Learning in a Global Society TAIS 2008

Wanting Change

2008-11-05T06:21:00.005-06:00

Election 2008 will take a momentus place in history. It was amazing to see throngs of people gathered to celebrate Obama's victory not just in Grant Park, but all of over the world. People voted, in record numbers, for change. People want change. Millions of people actually became in engaged in a change movement.

This whole campaign cycle has been amazing and so will be Obama's attempt to bring change to one of the most entrenched, self-aggrandizing, complacent, complex organizations ever - our government. We have become numb to a sense of civic responsibility and service.

What will he bring? Although we lack specific details, President-elect Obama brings a renewed sense of purpose and commitment to having a government that serves the people, a government that creates opportunity for people to achieve all that they are capable of, and a hope that we can reclaim for the United States a proud position in the world as Great Leader in ingenuity, innovation, and inspiration.

How could we not invite a renewed sense of our founding values into our governance at this time?

Impeccable with your Word

2008-11-05T06:17:00.002-06:00

The four guiding principles of The Four Agreements by Don Miquel Ruiz came to mind as I watched the election returns. Senator Obama, either naturally or in a studied way, certainly applies these principles. I have been using these seemingly simple guides for about four years myself and it is amazing how they focus your behavior, your thoughts, and your attitudes. I like them because they are simple, straightforward and inwardly focused. They are about, for me, developing emotional intelligence and discipline.

1. Be Impeccable With Your Word
Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.

2. Don't Take Anything Personally
Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won't be the victim of needless suffering.

3. Don't Make Assumptions
Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.

4. Always Do Your Best
Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.

Tangential Topics to SAIS Presentation

2008-10-28T21:02:00.003-05:00

I touched on all of these topics or used them as deep background thinking in my presentation at Southern Association of Independent Schools Annual Conference this past weekend:

Alan Greenspan on Education

Reflection

Important Questions: 1) What do you do that brings you joy? 2) What are you good at? and 3) Does the world need you to do it?

Learning Between the Lines

The Risk of Mediocrity

Managing Uncertainty

Niceness Hurts the Organization

SAIS 2008 "Developing A Whole New Mind"

2008-10-28T19:47:00.004-05:00

One of the most influential books that I have read in the last three years is Daniel Pink's A Whole New Mind. I had the pleasure of sharing how I have used his "six senses" as a leadership development and innovation tool with school leaders. You can view, print, or bookmark the presentation here:

Developing "A Whole New Mind" At Your School SAIS 2008

About SCRIBD:

SCRIBD is tool used to post presentations and documents on the web. It is also a community of content producers who want to share their work, to learn from each other. It is easy to use, reduces emailing presentations individually, stores documents for you so that you can bookmark a document instead of downloading. Downloading and printing are also available.

Re-Imagine!

2008-10-23T06:03:00.001-05:00

I love when the messages that are out in the universe trying to reach you finally catch up to you. I regularly eat at various Vietnamese restaurants, especially in cooler weather, because I love pho, and I love hoping that a little wisdom will be imparted to me via the fortune cookie.

I also love a calendar that gives daily advice or food for thought. My 2008 calendar is Tom Peter's Re-Imagine! It is full of incredible snippets for the brave, imaginative warrior like I am.

Today's advice is this:

Opportunity now lies,
not in perfecting routines,
but in taking advantage of instability --
that is, creating opportunities of the
daily discontinuity of the turbulent marketplace.

I don't think that Tom Peters, as smart as he is, could forsee the market crash that we are experiencing, but I love that his advice is so fitting. Here is my interpretative application of this advice from the master for finding opportunity in instability:

1) Get over it and deal with the reality at hand. Start to talk and plan for decreased customers and a cash poor operating environment. This applies to a manufacturing plant as much as it does to a church or a school or the neighborhood deli. Look for the opportunities you have to change the conversation with your customers to one that focuses on the value that you provide.

2) Reign in account receivables. I am just starting with a new client that is generous to a fault. He extends credit to distributors and waits more than 90 days to receive his payment. All the while, his suppliers have their hands out. He is getting squeezed by his own doing and it is draining him unnecessarily because he has to worry about cash needs too much. When I was the GM of a hotel, one of the innovations that I introduced to that system was to pay the first room night including taxes upon making a reservation. All of a sudden, no-shows went down dramatically. And the cancellation policy within 72 hours was a penalty of the first night's stay, which we had already collected. It is especially dangerous to get strung out in cash positions in this cash poor environment.

3) Instead of perfecting routines or the same old-same old way of doing things, the current environment is a perfect excuse to pull the trigger on the things that you might only have been thinking about. For example, there are tremendous cost savings to be had in communicating to your customers through technology that is by and large FREE. Online publishing and strategic use of email far exceeds producing and sending paper documents. Evites are part of daily life, why can't they be used for institutional life. I just received an Evite to my college reunion and I can look to see who is coming and RSVP at the click of a button. No telling the hard dollars saved in printing much less the design effort and stuffing and sealing efforts. I am sure on the other end, many steps are decreased in creating guest lists etc because the database is built from customer responses. You will save in paper costs, labor costs, mailing costs, and message ignored costs if you go paperless. Extending your organization down the status quo path when the market fundamentals are so dramatically new and unusual is dangerously naive. Dramatic change in fundamentals requires a re-evaluation and re-consideration of all previous assumptions and directions.

4) Invest in learning and innovation. Now is the time to find ways for everyone in your organization to be able to give more and to be able to work more effectively and collaboratively as a team. Also, to create an environment where employess feel they receive more in the form of meaning in their jobs helps fulfill their spirit when raises might not happen for a few years. Together, there is more leverage in coordinated effort than in many uncoordinated efforts. We all with have to get used to accomplishing more with less. I anticipate expectations of service and communication and value will dramatically increase while resources for expansion in programs and personnel will decrease for the next few years. Asking how and what we can do that is more with less will be a fruitful conversation for all organizations to have.

There are great opportunities in instability. Only those that actively engage in the exploratory process of discerning the needs creating by this new instability will find them.

Create The Future You Want

2008-10-21T05:32:00.002-05:00

I had the distinct joy last week of hearing Cory Booker speak to over 900 leaders in my city of Memphis. Booker is the mayor of Newark, New Jersey who has set out to rescue his city from urban decay and reposition Newark as a world class, family friendly place to live. Mayor Booker spoke eloquently and passionately about what it takes to influence change in an entrenched, tolerant, complacent environment that suffers from a mindset that says this is the way we do things here. "The problem," he said, "is that people suffer from lack of imagination and are paralysed by fear."

The solution for Mayor Booker's efforts in Newark, and for any leader attempting to create a culture of innovation and creative progress, is "to have a clear vision, bold ideas, and the willingness to work long and hard despite the many, many people who do not believe that it is possible or necessary."

The engine of his change machine is instilling a sense of personal responsibility for the future in each individual. He called for the citizens of Newark to stop tolerating less than -- less than in their school system, less than in the crime occurences, less than in the quality of city services, less than in the fabric of their neighborhoods.

Mayor Booker inspires hopeful action, "The current times - despite economic difficulties; despite fear -- are an opportunity for us to show our mettle, our strength. That is what we, as Americans, do. We endure. We invent. We commit to values that our current realities show that we have lost sight of."

Mayor Booker envisioned a better future for Newark. This was his guiding vision as he set out to reinvent his hometown:

Newark will set a national standard for urban transformation
by marshaling its resources to achieve security,
economic abundance and an environment
that is nurturing and empowering for families.

Booker carries a slip of paper with this vision statement on it in his pocket. In essence, he wears this vision and works to create it in every action and interaction.

The enemy of bold imagination and bold action, Booker says, is incrementalism. "You just won't get where you want to be my trying to retool irrelevant and outmoded ideas and systems. Better," Mayor Booker advises, "is to work backward from the vision and let the process of meeting a challenge and problem solving flow downward from the vision. Life is too short," he says, "to not know what you stand for and not to believe in your ability to accomplish your dream."

If ever you get the chance to hear Newark Mayor Cory Booker, go early and sit in the front. It is an inspiring experience. Go, not because you care about urban planning, but because you believe in dreams and because you believe, as he does, that our greatest talent and strength and human desire is to be creative.

A Culture of Wisdom

2008-10-19T12:03:00.004-05:00

In this time of economic stagnation and uncertainty, it is of utmost importance that organizations of all types (even if you think you are the type that doesn't need to) need to start the conversation about value: Are we offering value? Do our customers perceive what we do as value-added? Critical to survival in economically stressed times will be to offer value, convenience, and efficiency. Internally, effective and efficient management will be of supreme importance as organizations will have to do more with less for potentially a long time.

A good way to enter this conversation is to start to talk about what it means to develop a culture of wisdom. A culture of wisdom has three key ingredients:

shared knowledge (arrived at by the discipline of reflection)
shared ethics
a valiant sense of responsibility to self, to peers, to organization's mission.

A wise culture leverages the knowledge of each individual to create shared organizational knowledge. In addition, a wise culture actively creates new knowledge of various forms. They learn, learn, learn all the time in order to increase their knowledge, their efficiencies, and their effectiveness.

A wise culture is driven by shared ethics of what it means to work effectively with the other members of the organization. In a school, this would include working effectively with peers, administrators, students, parents, and community partners.

The shared ethics would also extend to the commitment that each individual makes to learning to improve their contribution to the whole effort on a daily basis. Learning and improving and sharing with others becomes a deep personal responsibility. Thus, everyone is a leader in a wise culture as each strives to model optimal learning and sharing habits and behaviors.

In managing or guiding a wise culture, management should focus on creating the future by growing the systems and individuals of the organization to make that future a reality. Jim Sinegal, CEO of Costco, says, "management's job is to teach, teach, teach." He says, "Management's goal in teaching is to grow the future of Costco."

Jim Sinegal's belief about planning:

You have to schedule it. You have to plan the opportunity to think about your business and plan what you're going to do. Otherwise you're just a hamster running on a treadmill; you're never going to get anywhere. You've got to schedule it. Strategic planning is an important part of running any business and the more so for businesses that operating in multiple states and countries.

A big part of that planning, which is an often and ongoing thing, not a twice a decade thing, is to plan the learning that you are going to infuse your culture with so as to create a culture of wisdom.

21st Century Standards

2008-10-19T07:26:00.000-05:00

If we value them, we will learn to foster them and measure them. This article from Education Week, "States Press Ahead on '21st Century Skills'" by Catherine Gewertz tells about what some schools are doing.

21st Century Survival Skills

2008-10-17T07:35:00.001-05:00

The work of Thomas Friedman and Daniel Pink does a great job in providing evidence that a new world, one that is fast and dynamic, is here to stay. They make the case that we indeed have experienced a massive paradigm shift to a global, interconnected, technology-driven way of communicating and interacting as people and as organizations. As a result, all types of individuals and organizations are struggling to respond and stay in sync, to remain relevant. Some do this willy nilly and others are trying to devise plans such as personal learning plans, organizational learning plans, or sustainability plans. The basis for these plans is this question: What will it take to survive in a new, fast, flat world?

A recent article in ASCD, "Rigor Redefined" by Tony Wagner, outlines 7 critical survival skills for us, as adults, trying to be in sync and us, as teachers, charged with preparing students for their challenges and opportunities in the 21st century. It is worth assessing where we are in relation to these skills:

1. Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
2. Collaboration and Leadership
3. Agility and Adaptability
4. Initiative and Entrepreneurialism
5. Effective Oral and Written Communication
6. Accessing and Analyzing Information
7. Curiosity and Imagination

How are we further evolving these skills in ourselves?
How are we explicitly teaching these skills to our students?

Managing In a Recession

2008-10-09T07:47:00.001-05:00

"It is time for us to stand and cheer the doer, the achiever, the one who recognizes the challenge and does something about it." - Vince Lombardi

This quote seems timely for the current treacherous environment. I think the most natural reaction is this: because I am not directly involved in the capital markets, I will steer clear, stay away, keep on keeping on. I don't think any business in any industry will be able to address this current crisis in this innocent way because of the tremendous ripple effect it will have on consumers.

The hard part is ascertaining what to do and when. Some things seem obvious and essential.

Everything is on the table. Bring all operations to the surface - the strategic plan, the marketing plan, the advancement plan, the learning plan, the growth plan, the succession plan and question all of the assumptions that fueled these plans.

Investing in human capital in appropriate. Build the capacity and expectations of each person working for you. In analyzing the plans, a combination of defensive and offensive thinking will be vital. Plan for at least a 20% decrease in customers. But, don't just shrink accordingly. A better tact is more nuanced. Find efficiencies in everything. If you don't outright cut some things, then find out how you can get more out of the outlay. Look from the smallest routine item like coffee, drinks, and snacks which were benevolently available to energy efficiencies in plant management to combining tasks and roles so that much more is accomplished with the labor force that is in tact. Been waiting to go paperless? Now it is the time to highly leverage free, creative, paperless communications - more intimate, higher quality, more convenient for sender and receiver, file-able and retrievable.

Attracting new customers is vital because of the loss of customers that will occur. Finding ways to build relationships and add value in ways that do not cost is very important. Quality, supportive, authentic relationships with our customers is paramount. Constantly adding value above and beyond expectations will keep people buying from you. Email is free, phone calls are free, handwritten notes cost next to nothing. Build relationships. Everyone in the organization should become relationship savvy and relationship sensitive. Reach out. Be visible. Have voice that illustrates your value.

Innovate. Now is the time to invest in distinguishing systems, distinguishing messages, and distinguishing products. Customers will become more value conscious than ever before. They will be searching to spend wisely and to become involved with organizations that are efficient, effective, and progressive. Spending money for less will feel painful, wasteful to customers. Innovation is the antithesis of inaction, staying out of the way, steering clear. Innovation is about intentional, disciplined re-thinking, re-considering, re-strategizing based on changes in the current environment. Innovation is essential like never before.

Searching for Familiarity

2008-10-08T06:54:00.002-05:00

In listening to the post-debate coverage, opinion writer David Brooks uttered a phrase that captures the ethos of the age as well as the current crisis: we are all searching for familiarity. In dealing with this financial crisis, everyone is searching for a model, an analogy, something familiar to help us understand the details of the unraveling of our economy. But, there is nothing familiar because we are dealing with interconnected, highly leveraged complexity that is completely new, global, dynamic, technically very sophisticated.

Beyond the financial markets, we are all searching for familiarity. And, it eludes us in more things everyday. The rate of technological innovation renders even those of us who are trying to stay relevant out of sync at times. Managing the speed of change, the volume of new information, and the complex interrelated nature of everything is unfamiliar. It used to be if you just didn't make a mistake, if you just didn't offend anyone, life was good, manageable. If you just managed your life and your business in the comfortable, familiar way, you were fine. No more. The current dynamic environment is dynamic and unfamiliar. Competition in all industries, from healthcare to consumer goods to education is fierce. The consumer is more educated and discerning than ever before, armed with scads of information and comparison data one click away. Inaction is a decision that widens the gap between your organization and contenders in the marketplace.

Where can we find the comfort of familiarity when we are chronically surrounded by the demands of this dynamic environment? I think the answer is in focusing on the process we use to manage complexity and to make decisions. We have to rely on our values and a strong sense of our strengths to lead us to find a path through information and considerations to clarity. The leader needs to understand that he or she is leading into unchartered territory and become comfortable with the discernment and decision-making process of his or her team. Here are a few critical tips;

1) surround yourself with smart, industrious people;
2) surround yourself with people who think differently than you, who will bring out often unconsidered perspectives and challenge assumptions; learn to highly value differences for the stretch they inspire;
3) clearly define and express your values. Use them as lens in making decisions;
3) take in information from sources you trust. Ask your team to actively engage in broad learning as well; share and transfer knowledge among your organization;
4) engage in invigorating pre-decision debate and analysis. Encourage deep thinking and deep discussion in order to fully consider all perspective and concerns; Be concerned if this is not happening;
5) start at the end: what do we want to accomplish? what values do we want our decision to reflect? how does this decision meet the needs of our customers and distinguish us from our competitors?

While we may all be dealing with issues that are unfamiliar and situations that are completely new and unanticipated, a robust process of critical thinking, strategic alignment, and creative problem solving that holds our performance outcomes as the top value should be something we can hold dear as completely familiar.

Managing Uncertainty

2008-10-07T08:09:00.002-05:00

The current plight and panic of global financial markets is unlike any event ever in world history. I have yet to hear from all of the sideline analysis any true explanation and comprehension of the complexity and scale of this current crisis. Needless to say, there are no models from which to extrapolate logical and comprehensive solutions. It is quite possible that we will be faced with a great deal of uncertainty in our economic futures for some time to come.

It is helpful to understand how the brain perceives uncertainty. According to Australian neuroscientist David Rock, author of "The Neuroscience of Leadership," the brain perceives uncertainty as a major threat. Threats are equated by the brain with pain. So, the current financial crisis is causing our brains to experience great pain, which causes the limbic system to become hypervigilant, activating its fight or flight stress reaction. The impact of this stress reaction on the brain, especially if endured for a long term, is quite dangerous. Stress and anxiety severely limit out capacity to engage in effective cognitive activities. In other words, stress and anxiety limit our abilities and capacities to think, eliminate our ability to be creative in finding solutions, and cause our normal ability to manage the complexity of our work and of our daily lives to falter.

In this current crisis, it is imperative as leaders that we increase our abilities to think, communicate, and problem solve. Others are looking to us specifically to make some sense of the uncertainty by placing it in the context of our daily work and our daily lives. They are looking to us as leaders to ease their pain, thereby steadying their ability to think and manage their work and daily lives.

How to do this? Here are a few suggestions:

1) manage your physical needs diligently - good nutrition, good hydration, physical exertion, and sleep. It is a great mistake to turn to anesthesizng pursuits (drugs, food, alchohol, gambling, etc) to ease psychic pain.

2) limit your intake of information to two limited time periods during the day - once in the morning, once in the evening. Fueling your own sense of pain and panic is counterproductive to your call as leader and chief strategist. Stop spectating and start thinking.

3) start to analyze the scenarios and plan for the worst case. As painful and distasteful as it is to have to rethink current and future plans, it is imperative to take a hard look at not only the plans for the future, but how to survive the current declining situation. Pining over lost opportunity for the future can easily distract you from managing defensively in this current environment.

4) assemble your team and get down and dirty with the hard questions. Key questions would be things like what are current receivables and how can we decrease those? What are our current credit needs and how to manage those? How can we protect our current customer base - both size and volume? What sort of reduction in our current customer base can we comfortably tolerate? How can we maintain and strengthen all of our organizational relationships during this time? Where can we restrain spending without hindering our mission? How can we increase capacity and impact in the system now as to rise to new levels of impact and efficiency?

5) pay attention to innovation. Once the current environment becomes less panicked and somewhat stable, customers will appear again with an awareness of value that we have never seen. Sensitive to the difficulty of amassing capital and the possibility of hard and fast lost, customers will choose to spend only for incredible perceived value. Don't wait until the economy recovers to address your value offerings because it will be too late. Make sure you are incorporating all of the pain of these current markets to make your products and services of great value to your customers - new, different, above and beyond value.

Evolving Beyond Niceness

2008-10-04T18:19:00.005-05:00

Evolving beyond niceness means that we develop organizational cultures and teams that value productive work and results in addition to civil and fulfilling relationships with work mates. The first step in doing this, in my opinion, is understanding what we are trying to accomplish when we are nice and polite.

The origin of politeness theory can be found in the work of sociologist Erving Goffman and his 1963 article, "On Face Work." Goffman observed that in verbal social interactions, speakers try to protect their identities and social standing by "saving face." Face is broken down by Goffman into two different categories. Positive face is the desire of being seen as a good human being, maintaining a positive self image. Negative face is the desire to remain autonomous or powerful. Acting to save face, therefore, is the desire to be appreciated and protected. Penelope Brown and Stephen Levinson furthered Gottman's observations and developed a full politeness theory.

Understanding that protection and safety is an essential human need, how do we evolve the communication within our teams to move beyond politeness? I think the answer lies in building committment to a common goal and creating the dynamics that allow each member to become vulnerable. It is in the process of strategizing and problem-solving toward the common goal, that members should be able to shift their focus from self-protection to vulnerability, tapping into whatever methods of problem-solving they offer. It is also of critical importance that each member show great acceptance and respect for the process of developing ideas and decisions so that a team member is not encouraged back into a self-protecting posture by virtue of his or her ideas and opinions being ridiculed. So, niceness and politeness, is replaced by critical thinking, respect, and process.

With time, each team member should feel full satisfaction from the collective work of the team and the individual problem-solving contributions that he or she has made. This sense of accomplishment accompanied by the process of reaching full decisions is infinitely more fulfilling that self-protecting politeness. It is the productive work of selflessness.

Individual members who lack the awareness or perception of inter-personal dynamics, the shared sense of mission, or the patience for the process of thinking as a team will have difficulty in shifting their interactions toward intimate teamwork.

Niceness Hurts the Organization

2008-09-26T06:42:00.003-05:00

Getting real in what you do as an organization and how you do it often requires a change in your organizational culture. Changing organizational behavior and organizational mindset is imperative to creating high performance teams that are able to create and accomplish highly relevant goals and objectives. One of the most common starting points that I find sadly pervasive in many organizations is a culture of niceness that weighs down most all group (more than 2 people) discussions. The effect is lack of realism, lack of team cohesion, and lack of enthusiasm, lack of real direction, lack of an ability to align to a changed business environment.

A culture of niceness is one where members are perfunctory. They show up at meetings, they pay attention, they offer support when it is safe, and keep quiet when they disagree. Often, they offer their reservations or add-ons to a discussion among their peers long after the meeting is over, completely defusing the effectiveness of the leader and completely eliminating the possibility of the group working as an effective team with collective knowledge and collective thinking abilities.

The result is that what is most likely to get done is more of the same because it is comfortable and the grooves of behavior (we know how to do this, we have always done it this way, this is easy for me because I don't have to think about it) are well worn. This can really threaten an organization's relevance and sustainability. It can also dampen the heft of the work environment to the point of being rather mind numbing for those interested in generative, robust work.

Why do we value niceness? Obviously we value niceness because we want to have pleasant, friendly connections with people. Because we spend so many hours at work, it is common to seek to fill a need for friendship, connection, and intimacy with our work associates. Most people, by nature, seek harmony and avoid conflict like the plaque. Most people value saying something nice and acceptable over the truth - think of the old scenario of do you like my hair?
And, you don't but you say that you do because you don't want to hurt someone's feelings.

A couple of things must be brought to collective understanding in cultures that are wrought with niceness. First, why we are here? We are here to fulfill the mission or the business objectives collectively. The member is personally there because he or she offers skills toward that end. First and foremost, it must be understood that we as members of this organization have a defined, mission-driven job to do. That has to come first over all inter-personal needs. How can we best accomplish that job? Through effective teamwork and effective leadership. Leaders must lead with vision, consistency, clarity, and boldness. Teams need to be cohesive, collectively skilled and motivated, and effective at working together. This takes full engagement from all, honesty, and collaboration. If you are not sharing information for the team to utilize in fulfilling the mission, then you are hurting the team and the organization as a whole. If you are sharing your ideas and opinions outside the group, then you are limiting the ability and opportunity for the group to cohese and develop thinking skills and collective knowledge. People engage in these behaviors routinely and often without awareness because they value their selves, their own personal comfort, more than they do their team or the mission: It's just a job. Or, that makes me uncomfortable. Or, someone else will bring that up. Or, I didn't feel comfortable saying that. This behavior is an indication of a lack of skill, a lack of trust, disengagement, lack of buy in or understanding of the mission, and/or lack of leadership. Most often it is a combination of many of these things. Conflict is healthy, productive, and necessary for an organization to make full, enlightened, well thought out decisions. It is not the job of the leader to think for everyone. He or she absolutely needs others full input and diverse perspectives.

If this looks and sounds familiar, you have some work to do in managing your organizational culture and climate in order to develop effective, reliable, high performance communication and teams. Why bother? Read that mission statement again. Think about what the organization is paying you to do and the trust they have put in you to do it: Is it to be comfortable or to deliver results?

Ground the Strategic Plan in Realism

2008-09-20T06:50:00.000-05:00

A good strategic plan is grounded in realism and born of imagination. An organization's efforts are wasted in formulating a strategic plan if they do not take the necessary, and often painful, first steps of understanding fully who we are, what we do, how well we do what we say we do, and the current environment in which we are operating on a local, regional, national and global level. You also have to ask, do future customers want what we do, how we do it? And, you best get real in your answers. Only when you bring an honest assessment of these elements to the planning table are you able to design a way forward. Knocking the sugar-coating from the environment and actually objectively quantifying your current state of operations and affairs is critical to planning for your future.

Using a completely different set of skills, planning for the future requires imagination and fancy, as well as critical thinking abilities. You must be able to imagine what it will take for your organization to find alignment with the world as it will be in 6 months to two or three years from now. Someone on your team must be able to see the future that you will plan to create. You must see it whole and work backwards from there to fill in the action steps and time table. If you take the opposite approach and try to build the future by extending from where you are now, you have perpetuated, very logically, the status quo. Unless you can argue convincingly that the status quo is relevant in the changed and ever-changing environment of the future, your logical efforts are suicide.

Forget about the staid and steady 3 to 5 year strategic plan that is neat and laid out and incrementally wise because market forces do not shower that sort of stability on anybody in any industry anymore. For a modern, viable, realistic strategic plan for the 21st century, know from the onset that it must be dynamic and flexible, pliable and expandable in order for your organization to respond to changes in your industry, your customer base, the economy, technology, etc, etc.

Realism is Source of Good Decision

2008-09-17T06:19:00.003-05:00

One vital and radical move toward better decision making is to foster realism. Too often organizations are guilty of looking at the world the way that they would like it to be, chronically engaging in a sort of happy, comfortable group think or grand organizational delusion. This can be amplified and perpetuated in cases where most people in the organization have little or no contact with people in the industry outside the walls of their workplace. People inside organizations often think we all love each other and love what we do, so customers will love us, too. It's not that simple or that "all-about-me-the-peppy-provider."

Customers makes decisions about your product and what it does for them. Customers search for products (and services) that fill a need. It is all about them, the customer. Customers buy your product (or service) based on its quality and performance in meeting their needs. So, the organization's thinking must start here: customer first; quality always. Ask yourself and those in your organization realistically, what does it take to accomplish customer first, quality always?

What is needed in order to reach and support good strategic decision making is looking at the world the way it is, even when the reality of the way the world is conflicts with our desires, comfortable level, current knowledge base, and values about how things should be. Organizations, which are wrought with group think for many reasons, have to remember that the day they start situating things for the comfort and benefit of the people inside the organization is the day they start to go out of business. The reason is because customer needs and customer comfort has to come first. The auto companies and the airlines should be able to sound off on this paradigm shift from tremendous painful experience. This benefit mentality, which is complex and complicated, coupled with a complacency which denies reality and a sense of entitlement, has just about killed off all of the auto and airline mainstays - the very people who forever considered themselves invincible. Where are they now? Undergoing a tremendous, public, expensive, extensive reality check.

Organizations with leaders who can infuse reality based on the now, and those willing to learn to do it, will be the victors, especially as we head into strange new realities and market alignments that are coming as our bubbly economy adjusts. And check this reality: don't think because you are not a airline or auto company or because you are not big that it does not matter. Customers are savvy and in touch with their needs, and they vote with their dollars. Customers use the same analytical framework whether they are looking for a doctor, a dentist, a car, a lawyer, a new vacuum, a college, or a preschool. Don't kid yourself or let the people in your organization cloud reality. I heard a organization leader say, unfortunately more than once, "we are not a real business." Reality check: then what are you, besides deluded?

Sustainable Decision Making

2008-09-15T08:45:00.003-05:00

One of the hardest things in my view that a leader has to do is to change or alter something that he or she has put into place. This makes continual progress and innovation especially difficult for a manager or leader who has been in place for a long period of time because they have put so much into place over time. Leaders with longevity can become very attached to the status quo, as if they were nearing the end of a finish line, or reaching a finish point or final destination. This is a mental trickbag because the last thing a good businessman wants is to reach the end of their business. There is not an end and should always be new beginnings. This realization alone, or lack of it, is the source of much exhaustion and frustration for many, many leaders.

Good leaders make decisions with tremendous deliberation: input from inside the organization, analysis of outside trends and movement, worst case scenario analysis, cost/benefit analysis, cost of doing nothing analysis, and more. Because much time and effort is expended, leaders become emotionally attached to the decisions they make. Becoming emotionally attached to a decision itself or a course of action deemed strategic at the time, makes it hard, as writers say, "to kill the darlings." And, it is "killing the darlings" that makes a leader able to continually stay in touch and aligned with current market needs and conditions.

A better tack, in my opinion, is to become emotionally attached to the decision-making process, not the decision or outcome itself. One must become not only emotionally attached and energized by the decision-making process; he or she must trust the process, and work to make their decision-making processes full and expansive and trust-worthy. Tweaking the ends and outs of how decisions are derived, what input is considered, what input is customarily not considered but should be, etc. is invaluable to a leader who wants to be at the helm of a sustainable organization. Past decisions should reflect the best available thinking available based on input, time, and talent at the time. Thus, a leader should reflect and learn from the past, but not be wed to it.

Become wed to thought leadership and forward thinking that continually drives improvement, innovation, efficiencies, and downstream leadership in each department of your organization. Model "killing the darlings" for each member of each department of your organization in order to keep the place rolling strong.

What needs to be decided today to keep this business competitive, relevant, sustainable, on course, an industry player?

Hot, Flat, and Crowded

2008-09-08T19:05:00.001-05:00

Mr. Friedman's newest book - Hot, Flat, and Crowded - rallies the cry for America to become the leader and innovator as only Americans can be in the new field of ET - energy technology. Friedman predicts that the ET boom will be akin to the IT (information technology) boom in that it will be a game-changer. More than that, Friedman sees ET as the ticket to the United States' sustainability and respectability in the world.

Article from Wired magazine on Friedman's newest book: Hot, Flat, and Crowded
Thomas Friedman on Charlie Rose (video)

A Bold, Fresh Perspective at RISD

2008-09-05T08:57:00.010-05:00

On September 12, John Maeda will be inaugurated as the 16th president of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). RISD was founded in 1877 as one of the country's first colleges to offer a combined education in arts and design. RISD is one of only 35 colleges and universities that offer dual art and academic accreditation - see Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design (AICAD).

While Maeda has been a university professor, he has never worked in education administration. He is a designer. He is best know for design the Reebok "Timetanium."

In a recent article from the Wall Street Journal, "Design for Learning: RISD Gets a New Type of President," Maeda admits, "I don't know how to do this job! But, I know how to learn! I love to learn!" How refreshing that a university would tap someone who is creative and industrious and not wed to the "we have always done it this way" mindset. He can't be because he has never done college presidency before. RISD is setting themselves up for an organizational growth mindset and freshness and new perspective that comes with naivete. There is real courage and boldness to this choice that will yield a leg-up on innovation.

What does Maeda bring? The succinct answer is his mind and his energy. Art is about learning to see and problem-solving, in that order. One must be able to see clearly and anew what a problem is. To do this one has to ask obvious questions to tease out entrenched, subliminated assumptions and beliefs. One also has to be comfortable with developing a sense of what if..., why not?... and imagine....all stances of inquiry that lead to vision. Artists/designers make things go together, sometimes loosely connected yet exciting things. More organizations should consider this sort of fresh boldness that is much more likely to lead to innovation and renewal.

Mr. Maeda is a consummate blogger. Check out his blogs:
Our (and Your) RISD
The Laws of Simplicity
Simplicity at the MIT Media Lab
Technohumanism/Technology Review MIT

The Reebok Strucess by John Maeda

Are We Going To Abilene?

2008-09-01T02:27:00.000-05:00

Everyone needs cool friends. Cool friends is Tom Peters' term, and one can get lost investigating his list of cool friends. Were I to have a list like he does! I, however, was meeting with one of my cool friends the other day and, as often happens, he introduced just what I needed to further my thinking on my thought project du jour. I have been thinking a lot about meeting culture: if it is good or bad, effective or wasteful, necessary or ancillary.

Here is what my cool friend offered me: The Abilene Paradox. Here is the story that it comes from:

On a hot afternoon visiting in Coleman, Texas, the family is comfortably playing dominoes on a porch, until the father-in-law suggests that they take a trip to Abilene [53 miles north] for dinner. His daughter says, "Sounds like a great idea." His son-in-law, despite having reservations because the drive is long and hot, thinks that his preferences must be out-of-step with the group and says, "Sounds good to me. I just hope your mother wants to go." The mother-in-law then says, "Of course I want to go. I haven't been to Abilene in a long time."

The drive is hot, dusty, and long. When they arrive at the cafeteria, the food is as bad as the drive. They arrive back home four hours later, exhausted.

One of them dishonestly says, "It was a great trip, wasn't it." The mother-in-law says that, actually, she would rather have stayed home, but went along since the other three were so enthusiastic. The son-in-law says, "I wasn't delighted to be doing what we were doing. I only went to satisfy the rest of you." The daughter says, "I just went along to keep you happy. I would have had to be crazy to want to go out in the heat like that." The father-in-law then says that he only suggested it because he thought the others might be bored. The group sits back, perplexed that they together decided to take a trip which none of them wanted.

I didn't know its name, but I recognized this behavior from the work I have been doing around meetings. Why do we allow the need for a harmonious group to trump the need to make sound, full, focused decisions? The answer is: because we are human. So, the strategy is to learn to recognize this tendency or need in our meetings and groups, and to learn to guard against it so that better decisions that further the mission of the organization are derived.

Some questions to use as a start:

Do we value honesty and truthfulness?
Are we inclusive of multiple perspectives?
Do we attach ideas and perspectives to their owners in an unhealthy way? (A version of Kill the Messgenger)
Are we comfortable and skilled in the analytical process of making a full decision?
Are we afraid of new information, new input, and new ideas because of where they might lead us?
What is not being talked about or said, and why?
Do we understand and strive to do what it right for the organization or what is comfortable for our self?
What if we disagree? What does that tell us?
What can the leader do without full, open, honest input?
How can the leader stop us before we go to Abilene?

Use of Analogy

2008-08-29T14:00:00.001-05:00

During the Democratic National Convention coverage this week, I caught an interview with John Hickenlooper, mayor of the host city, Denver. He comfortably talked about how being the mayor of a big city is like running a restaurant. A man after my own heart because I love analogical thinking! Hickenlooper, a former brewpub owner, explained that running a restaurant is all about meeting the needs of the public. He says you have to understand "constituency service", learn how to manage conflict, and develop good empathy and communication skills. He explained that the restaurant business taught him that "there is no margin in having enemies". When he talked about being mayor, he said the same thing, explaining that one needs at all costs to be a collaborator and to stay positive, even in the trenches. Taking a longer view of what in his past has prepared him to manage the complication that being the mayor of a big city requires, he points to his career evolution: English major to geologist to brewpub owner to mayor. "I learned how to learn," he says.

Extrapolating from what Hickenlooper offers, I see that he has collected solutions in all of his experiences and is at the ready to apply them. When I am called to work with a leadership team over a long period of time, part of what we spend concentrated time and effort doing is systematically collecting solutions. I orchestrate, in fact, Solution Retreats, which is a visceral analogical thinking experience. Recently I guided the leadership team of an independent school through the charge of understanding the analogous businesses of a liquor store, a bank, a global manufacturer, a hospital, an architectural firm, and a symphony by having them question each CEO over a series of day long retreats. The analogies were not evident to them at first, but each solution retreat yielded new awareness, new understanding, new analytical frameworks, and specific projects for shaping the culture of their school. Learning through stories and conversation provides a richer, deeper, more meaningful and more useful experience than studying facts and figures. Why not create analogical learning experiences and reap the rewards.

The Power of Words and Vision and Hope, And Determination

2008-08-28T09:08:00.003-05:00

8/28/55...Emmit Till murdered
8/28/63...Martin Luther King, "I Have a Dream"
8/28/08...Barack Obama, "Change We Can Believe In"

Prepare a Better Speech

2008-08-27T10:11:00.002-05:00

Barack Obama will address the Democratic National Convention on the 45th anniversary, to the day, of Martin Luther King's "I have a Dream" speech. I think this is amazing and wonderful given the importance and power each man gives to the power of public speaking. I think leaders of organizations of all sorts would do well to hone their speaking skills, becoming more deliberate in using speeches as an opportunity to articulate their organization's values and product position, and outlining how their organization meets the needs of their audience.

Martin Luther King preached and Barack Obama articulates a deep, resounding message of hope, hope for all. Their resplendent, visionary illustration of what could be, and what should be, aligns with the need for people who are struggling or feel systematically marginalized to believe in hope, which will activate their willingness to work for and demand change.

Every time the head of an organization speaks to an audience, (an internal or an external audience), they are the face, the voice, and the values slate of the organization. Some would advise to wing it, be yourself, just say what is on your mind, be spontaneous, and carefree. I disagree. Each public address is an opportunity to articulate the vision. If the vision is articulated well enough and often enough, others begin the process of co-owning the vision which brings wonderful dividends to the leader and to the organization.

Preparing public remarks is an essential pursuit. I agree that a non-stuffy, genuine delivery adds, but off the cuff remarks that miss the target are disappointing. To prepare a good public address, I always start with questions:

What is the goal of this speech?
Who it the internal audience? What do they need to hear?
Who is the external audience? What do they need to hear?
Who is the stakeholder audience? What do they need to hear?
What is the mix?
What are the three themes that I want to emphasize? How are they related?
What story can I use to illustrate these themes? How can I make an emotional connection?
What is the last thing I want my listeners to hear?
Have I misrepresented or sugar-coated anything? Is it authentic and transparent?

I also recommend archiving all of your public remarks, even if yours is not a public company. Anything you do with great intention and great analysis is worth leveraging.

I look forward to identifying all of these structural elements in Mr. Obama's speech and always aspire to greater ability and facility, as he so aptly demonstrates, before my meager-by-comparison audiences.

Tactics for Communicating Vision

2008-08-22T06:59:00.003-05:00

The purpose of a compelling vision statement is to inspire and guide in a cohesive way the actions of a group. Once a vision statement has been decided (an intentional, intensive process), it is paramount that it be communicated in a consistent and effective manner. The goal is for the vision to take root and take hold within the organization, and to be known and confirmed by your users' experiences as they experience your organization. Additional happy users can become your best marketers and must be able to communicate your vision consistently and effectively.

This blog entry from The Practice of Leadership blog lists communication tactics that leaders can use to communicate their vision. It would be hard to improve upon their list:

Stories. When you tell a good story, you give life to a vision. The telling of stories creates trust, captures hearts and minds, and serves as a reminder of the vision.
The elevator speech. Every leader needs to be able to communicate the vision in a clear, brief way. What compelling vision can you describe in the amount of time you have during a typical elevator ride?
Multiple media. The more channels of communication you use, the better your chance of creating an organization that "gets" the vision. Use the newest communication technologies, but don’t forget the tangibles: coffee mugs, t-shirts, luggage tags and whatever else you can think of that will keep the message in circulation.
Talk to me. Individualize the vision by engaging others in one-on-one conversations. Personal connections give leaders opportunities to transmit information, receive feedback, build support and create energy around the vision.
Draw a crowd. Identify key players, communicators, stakeholders and supporters throughout the organization who will motivate others to reflect on and be engaged with the vision.
Go outside. Communicate to external customers, partners and vendors with advertising and public relations campaigns, catalogs, announcements and other statements.
Make memories. Create metaphors, figures of speech and slogans — and find creative ways to use them. Write a theme song or a memorable motto.
Guide the expedition. Use visual aids and updates to keep everyone aware of the progress you are making toward your vision.
Back it up. If you’re talking it up, be sure to back it up with actions and behaviors. If people see one thing and hear another, your credibility is shot and your vision is dead.

The Purpose of Vision

2008-08-21T01:54:00.002-05:00

I ran across this description of vision from The Practice of Leadership blog:

"A vision describes some achievement or future state that the organization will accomplish or realize. A vision has to be shared in order to do what it is meant to do: inspire, clarify and focus the work."

Here are some vision statements that accomplish everything this quote describes.

The Google guys, Sergey Brin and Larry Page:

Google provides access to the world's information in one click.

Chief Executive Officer of Cisco, John Chambers:

Cisco changes the way we live, work, play and learn.

Bill Gates, for the first 17 years of Microsoft:

We're going to put a computer on every desk in every home.

These statement are visions, not strategies or tactics. Everything these companies say, do, decide, plan, design, research, invest in, acquire, divest, hire, cultivate, and express in any way is related, guided by, determined by the vision. I commonly hear here is our mission statement, shouldn't that cover it? Mission statements are often too long, too inclusive, too proper, so much so that most employees can't recite them and don't use them as a decision-making tool. A vision statement is precise, concise, and forward thinking. A common mistake that many organizations make is not taking the time and energy to craft a solid, clear, guiding vision. Many people confuse the difference between vision, strategies, tactics, and goals. Each is different. Each is necessary, and they all flow from the vision. If the vision is weak, opaque, off-target, under-developed, outdated, or flat, the effects will be similar in your organization. The vision infuses. The whole organization will mirror the vision and the level of inspiration, enthusiasm, and commitment with which it is communicated and the level at which it is modeled, lived, from the top.

Have You De-Committed?

2008-08-19T13:32:00.005-05:00

Rick Wagoner, Chairman and CEO of General Motors was interviewed recently by Charlie Rose. The whole interview was worth a quote near the end of the hour. When Charlie Rose pushed him to shed some insight on the critical error that GM has made over the years, Mr. Wagoner replied, "The day you de-commit to producing the best product, you are losing ground." He could have gone on to state the obvious which is that once you start losing ground, it is really hard to get back in the game.

How do we de-commit? Is it our attitudes? our actions? our inactions? I would say yes to all of these. Is it our commitment? I would say not so much. Is it our vision or lack of vision? Is it leadership? In my estimation and experience, there are many committed people in organizations that work diligently, but often toward the wrong goal. Maybe a better way to say it is that too often they work toward a goal and not a vision.

Rick Wagoner explained in many ways that GM lost touch with its customers. He says you can have the best product in the world but your company will fail if customers do not want to buy it. "If you don't have the best product, you will not be here in the long haul," he said. And, he added that today's best product will not be tomorrow's best product. You have to innovate and be thinking about your customer's needs and desires five years from now. In other words, you have to work at staying relevant and designing all things around that. And, you have to be timely. It will be interesting to watch along with the world to see if GMs liquidity will stretch to cover its innovation (product to market) cycle.

What do your customers want and expect from your organization?
What changes in the current marketplace must you consider and design into your ethos?
What is the value-added that you offer?
Are you relevant, giving your customer what they want and need in the way they want to receive it?
Would your customers recommend you to others?
Is innovation a part of your culture?

No business, regardless of the industry, is immune from this analytical framework.

In Tribute to the King

2008-08-16T19:19:00.002-05:00

I am not embarrassed to admit that I love Elvis. But, I will say, I am able to keep that love in perspective. I am not like one of his adoring fans that travels to Memphis from places far away to pay homage and partake in The Vigil during what Memphians call "Death Week". But, then again, I don't have to travel far to appreciate Elvis because I live here and make my way to Graceland more than once a year to take out of town visitors. Signing the wall at Graceland is a must if you ever make it to Memphis.

In tribute this year, I offer an appreciation of Elvis' famous lip. Many have tried, but few can perfect it. Click this link and follow the photo stream to see the Baker best effort.

Some Good Einstein Quotes

2008-08-05T06:50:00.004-05:00

My favorite:
"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."

A close second:
"I have no special gift. I am only passionately curious."

A reflection of how his mind works:
"My power, my particular ability, lies in visualizing the effects, consequences, and possibilities, and the bearings on present thought of the discoveries of others. I grasp things in a broad way easily. I cannot do mathematical calculations easily. I do them not willingly and not readily. Others perform these details better."

The importance of focus and humility:
"The only way to escape the personal corruption of praise is to go on working. One is tempted to stop and listen to it. The only thing is to turn away and go on working. Work. There is nothing else."

"It's not that I'm so smart; it's just that I stay with problems longer."

Regarding education:
"It is not enough to teach a man a specialty. Through it he may become a kind of useful machine but not a harmoniously developed personality. It is essential that the student acquire an understanding of and a lively feeling for values. He must acquire a vivid sense of the beautiful and of the morally good. Otherwise he -- with his specialized knowledge -- more closely resembles a well-trained dog than a harmoniously developed person."

"The development of general ability for independent thinking and judgment should always be placed foremost, not the acquisition of special knowledge."

"It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge."

"Wisdom is not a product of school but of the lifeling attempt to acquire it."

Too Good to Ignore, (and something to think about for one's self):
"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen."

A hint as to where to begin to comprehend and apply this quote:

What are the unarticulated and unconscious assumptions that create my mental model?
Am I practicing disciplined and open lifelong learning?
Do I believe absolutes or am my beliefs adaptable and responsive to context and environment?
Am I evolving in developing the layers of my understanding and conscious reflection as I age?

An Inspirational Vision

2008-08-02T06:47:00.002-05:00

Be the change you want to see in the world.
-Mahatma Gandhi

My life is my message.
-Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi lived his life by these visions, both equally and individually powerful. To exemplify in our daily life, and to dedicate the whole of our life to what we believe is good for the world is noble. Taking the time to determine the change we want to see in the world and believe it enough to work toward it incessantly is a long process, in and of itself. But, who could argue that each of us making our lives as purposeful and focused as possible would make the world a better, more meaningful place for everyone.

Selling Ice to Eskimos -- Memphis Style

2008-07-30T18:13:00.002-05:00

I also saw Chef David Chang interviewed by Charlie Rose. Midway through the interview, Rose asked Chef Chang if he had aspirations to open a restaurant in Japan. Chang replied quickly, "No!" saying that he had too much respect. Then laughing, he added, "that would be like some guy that had a BBQ restaurant in Munich, Germany announcing he was opening up in Memphis, Tennessee. It’s not gonna happen," he chortled. Charlie Rose laughed profusely at the thought. I’m not sure, but I think he threw his hands up and said, "Duh!" Immediately, the observation seemed so obvious.

Chang’s statement hit home for me quite literary because I live in Memphis. Memphians are proud of their BBQ. Memphis likes it’s BBQ as much as Boston likes their Red Sox. I don’t think that the Yankees have much of a shot at being the team of choice in Beantown no matter how good Yankee-style baseball is. So, the chances of success for Chang’s Bavarian BBQ-meister are slim in Memphis, and everyone knows it. But, not so quick. I don’t think everyone sees the obvious. Sure, it is right there in front of us, and we all see it when it is pointed out. Yet, seeing the obvious is not a skill that everyone has developed fully.

I drive Jamie nuts with my cynical habits, among which is pointing out to her when someone tries to make a living by offering non-Memphis BBQ in Memphis. The list is not small. Here is my short list of those that have tried:

1. Chicago BBQ expert, Famous Dave's, opened and closed in Memphis with a famous Memphis partner, Isaac Hayes.
2. Famous Dave’s sauce was sold at the Market on Main.
3. St Louis-based grocer, Schnucks, advertises and sells St Louis-style ribs
4. BBQ chain restaurant, Smokey Bones, offers St Louis style ribs.
5. Numerous non-BBQ chains, including Jillian’s, have offered Saint Louis-style ribs on their menus.
6. I wonder how KC (Kansas City) Masterpiece BBQ sauce sells in Memphis?
7. Birmingham-based BBQ restaurant, Jim and Nick’s, is now open in Memphis.

Some of those on the list have been tremendous flops. The verdict is still out on others. And still, for others, BBQ is such an insignificant part of their business that the verdict may never be realized. I believe that even if selling St Louis-style ribs in Memphis doesn’t put you out of business, it couldn’t be a big seller. My point is this:
consciously observing the obvious can make you lots of money or save you lots of money. Not everyone, however, consciously makes these observations. You will have a competitive advantage if you cultivate the skill of just paying attention and seeing the obvious.

David Chang on Charlie Rose

2008-07-29T05:15:00.003-05:00

I take in information in a variety of ways, including watching Charlie Rose religiously. Last week Charlie had an exceptional interview with Chef David Chang that is worth watching, regardless of what business your are in, and regardless of your passion for food. Why? Because David Chang is a man living a vision. He is consciously working toward a big picture. He understands, accepts, and embraces the need to innovate all the time, to change in order to stay the same, which, as he says is his goal over and over again: to be the best. Midway through the interview when the conversation turns to his pricing strategy, Chang easily and comfortably states the guiding vision of his work: let's make delicious food of value. Chang had already repeated this vision many times over throughout the interview: we try to serve the best food we can; our goal is to make the best food in New York City; good food is not just for fine dining; we try to do something good and do it the right way. Without anxiety, Chang states that he is not sure where he and his restaurants will be in three years, but he knows the goal will be the same: to be the best. Chang exemplifies the importance of knowing the vision and the importance of not letting allegiance to specific strategies and tactics rule the vision. He strives to be dynamic, ever-changing in response to the environment, in order to remain relevant.

Chang is a refreshing mix of humility and ambition. He possesses a clear vision and an acceptance of the ambivalence of the specifics of the future. For a young man, he is full of sage and visionary advice:
Work hard. Stay humble. Try to do it right. Have integrity. Delight in what you do.

Wow!

More about Chef David Chang
The I Chang by Rob Patronite and Robin Raisfeld
Chef on the Edge by Larissa MacFarquhar
The Year of the Pig by Alan Richman

Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial's Vision

2008-07-25T06:32:00.001-05:00

While in Oklahoma City with ACDA in early July, I had an opportunity to visit the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial and hear designer Hans Butzer discuss its symbolism. His design team, Butzer Design Partnership, which includes his wife Torrey and associate Sven F. Berg, was chosen from over 600 entries to design the memorial based on their vision for the space.

Butzer started his talk by recalling the mission of the memorial site:

We come here to remember those who were killed, those who survived and those changed forever. May all who leave here know the impact of violence. May this memorial offer comfort, strength, peace, hope and serenity.

Butzer explained how from the beginning they were moved by this tremendous opportunity to leave a legacy, to make an impact that was the final statement on the incredulous, impersonal, violent act of others. They viewed their challenge as an incredible paradox: to create a place of serenity and peace from something that was created from evil and violence. They understood that part of the challenge was to create a sense of presence from absence, an enduring absence that caused random lives to be taken by an intentional act.

The site is incredibly moving. The two gates that stand sentinel over the bombing site gracefully and powerfully mark the intellectual threshold for the space. One gate is engraved "9:01" and the companion gate is engraved "9:03". The bombing took place at 9:02 a.m. Butzer's point is that things can only be understood in context. That placing this intentional act and its ramifications in context of the past, in the context of our culture, in the context of Oklahoma City, in context of the individual lives it touched, and in context of the future is the only way to make meaning. Similarly, choosing to make the street where the Murrah Building fronted as part of the memorial, commemorating it with a shallow black marble reflecting pool, changed the traffic flow of the downtown grid, forcing people trying to get from points downtown to encounter the reality of what happened perpetually. The reflecting pool is mystical. With every breeze, the waters distort their reflection of the memorial, inviting the viewer to understand that we work to understand, but that true understanding is not available to us because it has no ending point. Once we think we have a clear picture, a clear understanding of the motivations and ramifications, the wind blows, events in our life change and offer new awareness, and the picture changes.

Butzer team's vision was powerful and palpable as they designed this memorial. They created a sense of space, a sense of scale, a sense of story - individual stories, community stories, societal stories, a sense of history, a sense of absence and longing, and strangely a sense of presence and hope. The chairs that honor the 169 men, women and children who were killed are at once headstones and chairs at the table in the discussions of why?, and how not again?. All, from the power of a vision. This memorial is a great of example of vision as the details and the experience of the mission incarnate.

More Fun

2008-07-24T06:32:00.005-05:00

Everyone needs those things that free the mind and break it from deadlock. We all need a thing or two that successfully kills some time as the brain is switching gears.

For me, pretending to be Jackson Pollack fits the bill sometimes. I can put this program on the screen with a booming symphony or some loud rock-n-roll and get ready for the next thing, whether it is a long meeting that will be tense, a hour or two of concentrated writing, or carpool pick-up. It is energizing. It is also ephemeral because, compared to Jackson Pollock's, none of mine are worth keeping. Still, it is nice to pretend.

Fun With Words

2008-07-23T05:03:00.002-05:00

I love words - written, spoken, quoted. I love play with words like what e.e. cummings created, or Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss), or Shel Silverstein. I love to see words in art, like the work of Alan Fletcher in The Art of Looking Sideways. I love biting words used in editorials like those of Maureen Dowd or Ben Stein or Thomas Friedman or David Brooks, all favorites. I wish I could do with words what they all do!

I have discovered an awesome word memelet: Wordle. It is a program written by IBM programmer Jonathan Feinberg. For a wordophile like me, it is addictively fun. The gallery has some great wordles. Here are just a few that I have made. Make one of your own.

and, with my del.icio.us tags:

Too much fun!

Kashi's Vision Statement

2008-07-22T02:18:00.000-05:00

I couldn't find a formal vision statement but I think Kashi's founding principle is visionary. It is simple, easy to remember and motivates all that they do.

Kashi's founding principle:

Wellness isn’t a race—it’s a journey.
And, every day is an opportunity to live life a little healthier than the day before.
We truly believe when we eat well, we feel well.

To organize your thoughts and actions, discussions and decisions around what you truly believe is a vision. I truly believe that understanding creates community. Understanding, in some form, would be part of the vision that guides me.